Housing horror stories in San Francisco

Photo, Jason Henry for the NY Times

In today's NY Times (The Housing Market With Nowhere to Go (but Up):

Not long ago the pink house at 1829 Church Street, in the Glen Park neighborhood here, hit the market for $895,000. It sold for $1.425 million---$530,000 over the asking price---in less than two weeks.

The story of this fixer-upper, with three bedrooms, two baths, linoleum floors and an Eisenhower-era kitchen, is in some ways the story of the moment in the city, where longtime residents complain that Silicon Valley money is basically ruining the place for everyone else....At a recent open house for 1829 Church Street, the broker explained the property’s dilapidated appeal. “It’s a block away from all the tech shuttles,” he said....When Mark Zuckerberg bought his pied-à-terre in San Francisco’s Noe Valley in 2012, he had a representative knock on the door of the home he liked---it wasn’t even for sale---and then offered the owners all cash at double the value of the property.

See also Rebecca Solnit in the London Review of Books.