San Francisco’s most and least expensive homes this week

A five alarm sale in Noe Valley and an even keel at the Shipyard

By Adam Brinklow May 12, 2017, 5:00pm PDT

Friday is time for the High & the Low, a Curbed column chronicling the most and least expensive homes sold in San Francisco in the last seven days. Here’s this week’s pageant of extremes.

The former firehouse turned rather grand contemporary home at 3816 22nd Street in Noe Valley has a surprisingly tough time on the housing market.

First it sat unsold for three years starting in 2008, and then its 2015 listed flamed out in favor of becoming an Airbnb mecca instead.

Way back in 1959 the onetime Engine Number 44 received only a single bid of $7,500 (about $63,000) today. The winners, a pair of artists, used it as a studio.

The place didn’t become a proper house until its major renovation in 2008. Though a host of local designers did a gorgeous job on the interiors, June 2008 was not an auspicious time to be trying to sell a $6 million-plus house in San Francisco.

And in fact, 3816 22nd Street has never managed to sell for that sum despite several tries. It did, however, net a sale of more than $5.32 million this week.

That’s a high for the week among publicly listed homes in the city, but it’s still down from the $5.75 million asking price in March, and also down from its previous $5.5 million sale in 2013. Woof.

And yet, it’s hard to blame the home itself for any of its woes finding buyers. That 1909 Mission revival facade looks as good as ever, and who doesn’t love the soaring verticality of the four-story space, complete with spiral stairs in place of the old fire pole?

(Although a case could obviously be made for the merits of keeping the pole in the first place.)

A former firehouse turned contemporary home, with the words “Engine No 44” still visible on the facade.

And speaking of old things made anew, the city’s least expensive home sold this week once again put in port at the Shipyard in Hunters Point at 50 Jerrold Avenue. Though the neighborhood has a storied and colorful history, as new construction the home itself, a one bed, one bath, 655 foot condo, isn’t towing any freight from its past.

The final sale price of $589,000 was precisely the list price from back in March. Quite a haul by any objective standard, but still a bargain by the bearings of San Francisco in 2017.