San Francisco’s crisis for space reached new heights last week. A parking spot — just the parking spot, and no other additional property — listed for $100,000, according to ABC7 News.
“I had a picture of it and everything and my phone was ringing off the hook,” Bill Williams of Compass Real Estate, who’s handling the listing, said in a statement. “Because people thought $100,000 for property in San Francisco [and] they were clamoring for that.”
The parking space, located at 88 Townsend Street, is in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and a mere block from Oracle Park, home to the San Francisco Giants. Its close proximity to The Embarcadero, San Francisco’s eastern waterfront comprising of a historic clock tower, several restaurants, a science museum and more situates the parking spot in a highly sought-after part of the city.
“My client purchased it for about $85,000 around 2012,” Williams told Inman.
Although there’s no additional property tied to the listing, whomever purchases the parking spot will be responsible for a monthly homeowner’s association fee of $29 as well as property taxes.
So far, Williams has received a verbal offer of $90,000 for the space, but the sellers declined to accept.
Even though the cost of parking in the area averages about $15-$25 per day, the benefit of having a reliable spot to park in, untethered to any specific property, may be worth the cost for those who can afford it.
San Francisco isn’t the only city to list parking spaces for the same price as the cost of a house (depending on the city) — in January, Curbed Boston reported a parking spot for sale in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood starting at $299,900.
As elite housing development continues in cities like Boston and San Francisco, greater demand for parking spaces is likely to follow among higher earners, and six figure parking spot listings may become even more common with a clientele willing to pay.
“There’s a lot of parking spaces in buildings that people can’t [sell],” Williams told Inman. “Usually HOAs make it impossible for anybody to lease unless they’re a resident — so that’s one of the things driving the value too … That makes it kind of rare.”
