Unreal Estate, II

Spent some time wandering the 'hood and came upon an open house at 989 Sutter - you can check out the listing at the link (there's even a video!).  That plot was a dirt lot not too long ago, but now it's 3 condos - one two-bedroom unit on the 2nd floor, and two four bedroom, three level townhome-style condos on the top floors, complete with rooftop decks.

I decided to check them out in spite of the eye-popping prices, a cool million for the 2-bedroom unit (no way, too dark inside for that kind of money) and almost $1.8 million (each!) for the townhome style units.  I got tired of the stairs inside of each unit after about 3 minutes - the living area is on the top floor, with bedrooms below - so I can't imagine spending that kind of money on such a tedious layout, but at least they were bright (if cramped).  Each unit does have its own teeny private elevator, but that seems like a pending maintenance nightmare for the owners, and I'd have nightmares of getting stuck inside the tiny things.

I couldn't help but think the spaces would have been better utilized (and better-lit, although the townhome-style units were pretty sunny) as full-floor open flats - the ceilings were quite high - that the owners could divide with furniture and such however they saw fit.  The rooftop decks of the townhome units had nice views but were small.  The 2nd floor unit had a huge deck with no real view, but it was the most usable space being right off the kitchen.

Who the heck is buying these things?  Dot com fools with more money than brains?  One of the units is apparently already in escrow, which just astounds me.  According to a city planner friend of mine something like 100,000 new units are in the pipeline ready to go online within the next couple of years.  That's a ton of money about to pour into the city.  A lot of that is south of Market, in China Basin, Mission Bay and the Dogpatch, but there's plenty of development up this way and along the Market Street corridor.  It'll be interesting to see what impact it's going to have on the Tenderloin and the Academy District.  I'm concerned it's going to become too expensive for anyone without a trust fund to survive in the city much longer...