That sinking feeling when you realize you can't sell your home
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The building, which opened in 2008 and was touted as the most luxurious tower in San Francisco, became a beacon of the city’s burgeoning wealth, attracting tech millionaires, venture capitalists, and even the San Francisco 49ers retired quarterback Joe Montana.
The 58-story tower's shine faded on May 10, 2016, when Agabian attended a homeowners association meeting and was informed that the building had sunk 16 inches into the earth and tilted over 15 inches at its tip and 2 inches at the base, according to suits filed by residents and the city of San Francisco. “You can imagine how distressed we were to know that, for one, our lifetime investment and savings are at risk,” she said. “And we have no idea whether or not there’s a fix to it, and if there is a fix to it, what it will entail.”
The building, meanwhile, continues to sink.
Any fix to the building will almost certainly take several years, and the lawsuits over who will pay for it could take even longer. In the meantime, residents of the building remain in limbo.
“There haven’t been a lot of resales in the building since all of this news came out,” said Gregg Lynn, the Sotheby’s broker. “There’s still no clarity about what it takes to fix or stop the problem.”
“We can’t sell, we can’t rent, we can’t move,” said Agabian, the retired scientist. “I’d sell it in a second if I got fair market value for it.” She corrected herself: “Well, there’s not a fair market for it, because now the fair market for it is zero.”
My sympathies for the coastal elites is limited, so anything short of a sudden collapse and lost lives will not keep me up at night. Besides, the owners will undoubtedly figure out how to get the outlying suburbanites to pay for this mess.
