See San Francisco’s Priciest Home Sales in a Soft 2023

Only one home traded for more than $30 million this year in San Francisco, amidst an overall luxury market slowdown that finally started turning around this fall.

The luxury home market was held back by all the “doom loop” talk this year, said Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle, a description that he said “absurdly overstated the actual state of San Francisco, though the city is certainly wrestling with some serious social and economic issues.”

For 2023, sales of $5 million-plus homes in SF are down about 20 percent compared to 2022, according to his data.

“If people read enough pessimistic articles, it starts to weigh on market psychology,” he said via email. “Personally, I believe SF will rebound from this downturn as it has from other downturns over the last 50 years — including the hyper-inflation of the early 1980s, the savings & loan crash/1989 earthquake, the dotcom crash, and the subprime bubble crash — some of which were as serious as or more serious than current conditions.”

Below is a look at the big residential trades that happened in the city despite the psychological and economic headwinds.

3450 Washington Street | $34.5 million

Tying the biggest sale of last year, 3450 Washington Street in Presidio Heights went into contract just as the year kicked off. The home, sold by billionaire cloud computer co-founders and married couple Mark Armenante and Young Sohn, was the highest-priced listing in the city when it came to market in September 2022 at $45 million.

The completely remodeled 1930s-era French-Normandy-inspired six-bedroom, 8.5-bath took a price cut to just under $40 million at the end of November 2022, went into contract at the end of January and closed in early March for $34.5 million. The buyer was 3450 Washington LLC.

2750 Vallejo Street | $23.5 million

There was a more than $10 million price gap between the first and second-most expensive sales of the year. Located in Cow Hollow, 2750 Vallejo Street was listed for just under $30 million in May and sold for $23.5 million in August.

The sellers were Alex and Diviya Magaro, according to public records. Alex Magaro is the co-president of investment advisor Meritage Group, which has $11 billion in assets under its management, and he now lives in Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile. The buyer was the 2750 Vallejo Trust.

The six-bedroom, seven-bath with nearly 7,800 square feet was built in 1905 but underwent a down–to-the-studs renovation by Troon Pacific before it sold to the Magaros for $20 million in 2013.

9 25th Avenue | $20 million

The longtime Sea Cliff home of The Wine Group founder Arthur Ciocca was the third-biggest sale in San Francisco this year. Ciocca and wife Carlyse had owned the oceanfront home with a heated pool in its front courtyard since the 1980s, according to property records.

At 7,540 square feet, the five-bedroom, 6.5-bath — with a wine tasting room, of course — had listed for $32 million in September of last year. The price dropped to $28 million in February and closed in early April for $20 million.

The buyer was Mistos Partners, whose address is listed as a home a few blocks away in Sea Cliff that has been owned by George Boutros since the late 1990s, according to property records. As the CEO of San Francisco-based investment bank Qatalyst Partners, Boutros is known for his involvement in big tech sales like the Microsoft purchase of LinkedIn and Slack’s sale to Salesforce.

130 Sea Cliff Avenue | $18.6 million

Another Sea Cliff sale snuck onto the biggest sales of the year list in December. Listed at just under $20 million in late September, the five-bedroom, eight-bath 1920-era home sold Dec. 4 for $18.6 million. Hedge fund executive John Burbank III was the seller, according to public records. He’s the chief investment officer of Passport Capital, which has $4 billion under management. Burbank bought the home for $13 million in 2012. He sold it to the LISO Trust, which lists a mailing address in Teton, Wyoming and trustees Judith Linquist and William Sollee, according to public records.

3410 Jackson Street | $18.5 million

Cloud billing CEO Brian Bogosian sold his Parisian-inspired Presidio Heights property for $18.5 million in early May.

One block off the Presidio Wall, the Sticky.io founder and his wife Lisa bought the five-bedroom, 5.5-bath with more than 7,000 square feet in 2010 for $7.5 million, according to public records. They previously spent time in Paris, and the City of Light was the muse behind their five-year remodel, they told Interiors magazine when the extensive renovation was completed in 2015.

The home was purchased by 3410 Jackson Street LLC, which lists a Dallas mailing address, according to property and state filing records. That address matches the home of real estate attorney John Theirl and his wife Kelly Harris, a CPA who runs a management consulting and recruiting firm “focused on assisting the CFO and CIO suites,” according to its website.

Best of the rest

The rest of the top 10 sales didn’t break the $18 million mark, though at $17.5 million, a penthouse at The Pacific condo tower at 2121 Webster Street was by far the highest-price condo or co-op sold this year and took the sixth-most-expensive spot. It came on the market asking $24.5 million in early 2022.

A Sea Cliff home at 870 El Camino Del Mar that listed for $16.5 million and is currently in contract could make a last-minute entry onto the list but hadn’t closed as of late December. Two quick sales on Presidio Terrace this fall took up two more spots in the top 10. Like those sales, every home in the top 10 was on the north side of town.

The biggest sale south of California Street was 50 St. Germain Avenue, a Twin Peaks seven-bedroom, six-bath with more than 7,600 square feet that sold for just over $9.9 million in January.

The only other home to break $8 million in the city this year was 2 Everson Street, a modern Glen Park mansion built by “Paypal Mafia” member Keith Rabois. He had been asking $12 million when the home first came on the market at the end of 2020. Former Obama campaigner Jim Messina bought the 5,700-square-foot home that centers around an open air atrium in February for $8.7 million.