A hundred grand will get you a house in some parts of the country. In San Francisco, it might get you a parking spot in a decent neighborhood.
Parking spot no. 140 at the 88 Townsend in prime San Francisco has hit the market for just that, according to SF Gate. It wouldn’t be unusual if it sold for that much either — a spot a few spaces away sold for $90,000 in November. The owners have reportedly passed on an offer at that price.
Compass agent Bill Williams is marketing the property as an investment.
“You could leave [$100,000] in your bank account and you might see the same return, but you wouldn’t have a parking spot,” Williams said.
San Francisco is the most expensive city in the country to build in and some developers have come up with novel projects to meet demand for housing there. A Kansas developer wants to build two apartment buildings with 88 basement “sleeping pods” renting for $1,000-per-month.
Rising real estate prices have put many residents on the streets of the city and many have turned to sleeping in their cars. It’s unclear whether 88 Townsend has a rule against sleeping in cars in their parking garage, but the city itself bars overnight sleeping in public parking spaces. Some city officials want to create lots where people can park and sleep legally.
It’s not even close to being the most expensive parking space out there. In 2017, someone paid $300,000 for a parking spot at a high-end apartment building in Hong Kong. There’s a whole “car condo” industry in New York City and people regularly pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for spaces. [SF Gate] – Dennis Lynch