Madrone had a less-than-stellar year compared to its own typically superb standards. 

A variety of factors can be attributed to both the average sales price and price per foot decline, most notably of which was Chase Center’s grand opening. From selling numerous units in the building we continually heard the concern from potential buyers that the increased foot traffic from Chase Center’s 200+ yearly events would disrupt their lifestyle. 

Truth be told, it was a major unknown.

From studying the data of condo sales in 2019 it’s almost ironic that the sales prices were lowest during the months leading into Summer and the grand opening of Chase Center; September 8th, 2019, whereas after the opening toward the latter end of the year, the price per foot steadily increased again. Typically, the Spring and Summer months are San Francisco’s hottest selling periods, cooling off toward Thanksgiving and being relatively quiet over the holiday period.

April and May saw the lowest price per foot sales we’ve seen at Madrone in a very long time: 3x sales between $1,090 and $1,100 per foot. In comparison to April and May of 2018, in which 4x sales averaged $1,143 per foot. While unit variability can play heavily into the $50/foot difference, these homes were all relatively similar, showing that mid-2019 saw a question mark hanging over Madrone.

Post-September through the end of 2019, 5x sales averaged $1,213/foot. Once buyers could stand outside at night time prior to an event at Chase and realize added foot traffic on Mission Bay Blvd wasn’t as significant as their imaginations had played it out to be, the building returned to its typical price point.

What is noticeable, and a bit scary, upon reviewing the sales was the lack of home staging in preparation for sale. This is an unforgivable sin that luxury real estate agents should not tolerate from sellers. Five out of the 14 sales chose not to use staging, and one of them even left a mess of dirty old furniture and empty space in various rooms. When a building is so heavily reliant on its in-house comparable sales, those that don’t invest the time and money into making their home look highly desirable to buyers actually let down their neighbors. Because of such a notable effect on home value, we offer to cover staging costs for homeowners up-front, being paid back out of escrow upon the sale. 

2020 is off to a slow start in Madrone with no sales on record. 1x rental is available in the building as well as a handful of properties hitting our “Coming Soon” list, as well as a notable 2-bed, north-facing corner unit in the pipeline. With Arden and One Mission Bay selling for astronomical prices, expect to see homeowners at Madrone patiently wait and test the waters of a relatively flat market in south Mission Bay.