“As Marie Antoinette as this sounds, there really is a housing crisis at the upper end — a mansion shortage,” said Sotheby’s agent Annie Williams. “Just as there’s a housing shortage for affordable housing, there are not enough big, beautiful houses with views for the demand that exists.” 

Williams was one of a handful of agents and buyers to see the Vallejo Street property, located just off the Baker Street Steps, when it was briefly available off-market last month. The 15,000-square-foot home on a corner lot was recently renovated, a prized feature in a neighborhood full of historic homes, and has panoramic bay views. The winning combination of space, views, and a full renovation ticked every box for buyers. 

Neal Ward at Compass, the listing agent, declined to comment on the sale, citing an NDA. The seller is a trust in the names of Gina and Daniel Alegre that bought the property for $11.7 million in 2013 from the family of Frank Alioto after the famed Fisherman’s Wharf restaurateur died a year earlier. 

Daniel Alegre is CEO of TelevisaUnivision, a Miami-based Spanish-language media company, and the former COO of “Call of Duty” creator Activision. During their time in the 1921 home, the Alegres undertook a multiyear remodel that included digging out the basement to add an indoor pool and spa, city permits show.

• Why San Francisco home buyers are stressing, grieving, and then doubling down

• First look: Take an exclusive sneak peek inside this rare Marin Maybeck asking $13M

• This mansion just set San Francisco’s 21st-century record for overbidding

The buyer’s agent is unknown, as is the buyer. State records show that the entity that bought the property, Granola Properties LLC, is registered to the address for Iconiq Capital, which is known for ultra-wealthy tech clients like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the sale. Compass agent Nina Hatvany told the Journal she had a client who bid $52 million on the Vallejo Street home but lost to the higher offer. The competition is an indication that the ultrawealthy are comfortable spending $50 million and up for a San Francisco home if the right one becomes available.

That’s a big “if,” given that almost all the construction along Billionaire’s Row and the surrounding area is for owner-users who plan to stay in their homes. 

“People that are renovating houses for themselves are not reselling them,” said Sotheby’s agent Joseph Lucier. 

Have thoughts on this story?

As long as that’s the case, he said, $50-million-plus sales won’t be filling up the MLS anytime soon. The owners on Vallejo sold only because they relocated — the renovations weren’t a calculated play to raise the home’s value — and the buyer clearly saw “the value of their time” in paying $3,700 per square foot for a house with no major projects required, Lucier said. That doesn’t mean $3,700 will be the new norm, though he did say the going rate at a premium property has moved from the high $2,000s to the low to mid-$3,000s per square foot this spring. 

“I think this is something that operates in its own area, and the other 99.9% of the market continues to operate as it does,” he said.

Compass agent Karen Mendelsohn Gould said even midlevel properties have jumped from $1,300 per square foot six months ago to more than $2,000 today. Add to that the typical high-end renovation costs of $1,500 to $2,000 per square foot, and a price in the “mid-50s” is “appropriate” for a move-in-ready, 15,000-square-foot view home in a prime neighborhood.

San Francisco’s luxury market is still a relative bargain compared to other high-end destinations, such as London and Hong Kong. Those cities are also space-constrained, with ultra-wealthy buyer pools and a rabid real estate market, but high-end homes there regularly sell for upward of $5,000 per square foot. Sales over $50 million occur fairly frequently in U.S. luxury locales like Manhattan and South Florida but are still an outlier in San Francisco — for now.

“If you look at Triple A homes in New York and Palm Beach, San Francisco pricing still has a ways to go to catch up,” Mendelsohn Gould said.