A luxury home in a well-known residential area of San Francisco has sold for half the asking price, possibly due to the difficult drug situation currently facing the American city.
According to the website Zillow, businessman Leslie Stretch first purchased the property with his wife in January 2020 for $20 million (C$27 million), a 627.3% increase over the price paid by the previous owner in 2007 corresponds.
However, more than two years later, he tried to resell the home, which has four bedrooms, eight bathrooms, five-car garages, a guest apartment and a rooftop terrace, for the same price. When Leslie Stretch realized her home wouldn’t find a buyer at the asking price, she lowered the price several times before selling it for $US9 million ($13.6 million) last November.
The unknown buyer benefited from a 50% discount on the home, which also features a cinema room, storage room and an elevator serving all six floors.
This loss of revenue is due to an increase in crime on the streets in the Russian Hill neighborhood in 2023, with a total of 839 incidents including burglaries, thefts and drug crimes. Conversely, San Francisco Police Department records recorded 806 incidents in 2022, the New York Post reported.
On average, San Francisco residents can expect to sell their home for $100,000 less than they paid for it.