Gawking Harder

190 Sea Cliff sold for $24 million (Chron)

When taking visitors along San Francisco's 49-mile drive, I liked to peer at the houses on Sea Cliff Avenue. These mansions were well out of the reach of this poor salaryman.

With the advent of the coronavirus and the well-publicized exit of middle- and upper-class families from the Bay Area, one might have expected the prices of such high-end houses to come down, but one would be wrong. [bold added]

sales of luxury and ultra-luxury homes in particular have jumped to historic highs in almost every part of the region, according to new data from the brokerage firm Compass Real Estate and the California Association of Realtors.

In the Bay Area, real estate agents define luxury homes as those valued above $3 million and ultra-luxury homes as those valued above $5 million. According to Compass’ report, luxury home sales in the Bay Area jumped 46% this year. Affluent and ultra-affluent buyers have substantially increased as a percentage of sales since the pandemic began, helping pull up the median prices to record highs for the region as well. That data closely aligns with numbers from the California Association of Realtors, which reports that sales in the luxury home sector this year have increased by 41.4%.

Breathing a sigh of relief are county governments, whose coffers will be boosted. For example, the 190 Sea Cliff Ave. house that sold for $24 million had, before the sale, an assessed value of $8.7 million and annual property taxes of $104,720 according to Zillow.

The annual property taxes payable to San Francisco will nearly triple because of the transaction. And don't forget the real estate transfer taxes of $464,000 and $26,400, payable to San Francisco and the State, respectively.

When I'm up in the area again, I'll gawk even harder.