A stunning row house in the tony San Francisco neighborhood of Russian Hill sold for just half of its $20million asking price, as the Bay Area city continues to face a surge in crime, open-air drug use, and homelessness.
In 2020, tech CEO Leslie Stretch paid $20million for the more than 10,000 square foot property that overlooks the Golden Gate bridge.
Stretch took the 50 percent cut on her asking price last month after failing to find a buyer for the four-bedroom, eight-bathroom home at 2626 Larkin St.
According to the New York Post, Stretch placed the home back on the market for $18million in May of 2020. Internet real estate listings suggest that he began cutting the asking price almost immediately.
Two months after the six-story home was listed at $18million, the price was slashed to $15million.
The price has fallen and fallen until an unknown buyer purchased the home in early November for $9.9million.
The center house – 2626 Larkin St. – sold for just under $10million in November. It had originally been listed at closer to $20million
The home, which includes a dramatic helix staircase, as well as a media room, wine cellar, and elevator, was once appraised at a value of $21million.
The Real Deal reports that there is also a three-story Venetian glass light fixture thought to be worth $1million. The home also comes with a guest apartment and a rooftop terrace.
Records indicate that the previous owner of the home paid $2.7million for the property in 2007.
As is the case with most neighborhoods in San Francisco, crime in Russian Hill has increased in the last half-decade. In 2023 alone, Russian Hill has experienced 839 incidents ranging from robberies to drug offenses, according to the SFPD.
In September, Redfin reported that one in eight home sellers in San Francisco are taking a loss on their properties, as prices drop in the area.
Sellers in San Francisco, on average, expect to take a $100,000 loss on the properties they are selling.
Since 2020, a significant number of stores have closed in downtown San Francisco because of the rising crime and homelessness.
In June, it was reported that a total of 45 out of the 97 retailers operating in the downtown Westfield mall – as well as 16 of the 36 food vendors – shuttered in just over three years.
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Eventually, Westfield announced it would be closing the mall altogether. The announcement of the shuttering of the mall’s anchor tenant, Nordstrom, potentially hammered the nail in its coffin.
Other major retailers that have abandoned the mall since 2020 include: Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Microsoft, Tiffany & Co. and Timberland.
The house’s Zillow history shows its price gradually declining as the seller failed to attract a buyer for more than three years
The collapse of the San Francisco Westfield mall reflects a bigger disaster affecting the city, which broadly includes spiking crime rates and homelessness. Pictured is a map showing retailers to have ceased their operations in the area
Over the summer, Westfield blamed ‘unsafe conditions’ and ‘lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity’ for Nordstrom’s departure. The mall noted that its poor performance in San Francisco occurred in sharp contrast to its other national locations.
The collapse of the mall reflects a larger disaster affecting retailers throughout parts of the city.
Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap and Office Depot are just some of the stores to announce in recent months that they are closing.
Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating – a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.
San Francisco is now widely thought to be stuck in a vicious cycle that includes the exodus of some tech giants, for which the city has been known the past few decades.
In October, Microsoft began advertising up to 49,000 square feet of their offices for sublet, a business move that has been employed by LinkedIn and Meta in the last few months as well.
The tech giant is offering spaces in San Francisco’s tallest tower – 555 California Street – from 4,500 to 49,000 square foot to rent until May 2029.
Companies such as Airbnb, Paypa, Slack, Lyft, and Salesforce have also left tens of thousands of square footage buildings in the city in the past year
The number of homeless people in San Francisco was tallied in 2022 at almost 8,000, the second highest figure of any year since 2005, according to the official government count which takes place every three years.
The city also saw a 41 percent surge in the number of drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, as fentanyl ravaged the city’s homeless population.
