A stunning townhome in San Francisco's cool Russian Hill neighborhood sold for just half its $20 million asking price, as the Bay Area city continues to deal with a wave of crime, open-air drug use and homelessness.
In 2020, tech CEO Leslie Stretch paid $20 million for the 10,000-square-foot property that overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge.
Stretch received a 50 percent discount 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 PostStretch put the house back on the market in May 2020 for $18 million. Real estate advertisements on the Internet show that he started lowering the asking price almost immediately.
Two months after the six-story home was listed at $18 million, the price was lowered to $15 million.
The price dropped and fell until an unknown buyer bought the house in early November for $9.9 million.
The middle house — 2626 Larkin St. — sold for just under $10 million in November. It was originally listed at almost $20 million
The home, which includes a dramatic spiral staircase as well as a media room, wine cellar and elevator, was once appraised at a value of $21 million.
The Real Deal reports that there is also a three-story Venetian glass fixture believed to be worth a million dollars. The house also has a guest apartment and a roof terrace.
Records show the home's previous owner paid $2.7 million for the property in 2007.
As is the case with most San Francisco neighborhoods, crime in Russian Hill has increased over the past five years. According to the SFPD, Russian Hill alone has experienced 839 incidents in 2023, ranging from robberies to drug crimes.
In September, Redfin reported that one in eight San Francisco home sellers is experiencing a loss on their properties as prices in the area fall.
Sellers in San Francisco expect to lose an average of $100,000 on the properties they sell.
Since 2020, a significant number of stores in downtown San Francisco have closed due to rising crime and homelessness.
In June, it was reported that in just over three years, a total of 45 of the 97 retailers operating in the downtown Westfield shopping center, as well as 16 of the 36 food vendors, have closed their doors.
Ultimately, Westfield announced it would close the mall altogether. The announcement of the shuttering of the mall's anchor tenant, Nordstrom, may have put the nail in the coffin.
Other major retailers that have left the mall since 2020 include: Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Microsoft, Tiffany & Co. and Timberland.
The home's Zillow history shows the price gradually dropped as the seller failed to attract a buyer for more than three years
The collapse of the San Francisco Westfield mall reflects a larger disaster affecting the city, broadly including rising crime rates and homelessness. The image shows a map showing that retailers have ceased operations in the area
Over the summer, Westfield blamed Nordstrom's departure on “unsafe conditions” and “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.” The mall noted that San Francisco's poor performance was in stark contrast to its other national locations.
The mall's collapse reflects a larger disaster affecting retailers in parts of the city.
Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap and Office Depot are just a few of the stores that have announced they are closing in recent months.
Of the 203 retailers that opened in the city's Union Square area in 2019, only 107 are still operating — a 47 percent drop in just a few pandemic-affected years.
It is now widely believed that San Francisco is stuck in a vicious cycle, including the exodus of some of the tech giants that the city has been known for in recent decades.
In October, Microsoft began advertising 49,000 square feet of its offices for sublease, a business move that has also been adopted by LinkedIn and Meta in recent months.
The tech giant is offering spaces in San Francisco's tallest tower – 555 California Street – ranging from 4,500 to 49,000 square feet for lease until May 2029.
Companies like Airbnb, Paypa, Slack, Lyft and Salesforce have also left tens of thousands of square feet of buildings in the city in the past year
The number of homeless people in San Francisco was estimated at nearly 8,000 in 2022, the second-highest figure since 2005, according to the government's official count every three years.
The city also saw a 41 percent increase in drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same time last year, when fentanyl was ravaging the city's homeless population.