A $10 Million Overbid in Presidio Heights: What Bay Area Home Sellers Need to Know

On October 2, 20 Cherry Street in Presidio Heights was listed at $18,500,000. On October 22 it closed at $28,500,000. That is $10 million, or 54 percent, over asking, and it is the largest dollar overbid in San Francisco history. Compass shows it at ten days on market.

The house is eight bedrooms and seven baths, roughly 10,000 square feet on a 13,446-square-foot lot, built in 1966 and designed by Whisler-Patri. The sellers were the Janice R. Lurie Trust and the Robert A. Lurie Trust. Janice Rosen Lurie, the first wife of former Giants owner Bob Lurie, died at the end of July at 96, and the home had been in the family for more than 40 years. Amanda Martin of BarbCo and Tina Bartlett Hinckley of Compass listed it; Nina Hatvany of Compass represented the buyer and said the house "is worth every penny paid."

I work with trusts and estates for a living, so a 40-year family home sold by a trust is exactly the kind of sale I pay attention to. This one tells a story about the whole market.

This was not a one-off

The same month, 2 Sixth Avenue listed at $8 million and sold for $15 million on October 7. Back in May, 2512 Union Street listed at $7.95 million and closed at $15 million, 88.68 percent over. And 120 Cherry Street, down the block from the record-setter, sold October 15 for $17.15 million, $3.15 million over its $14 million ask.

The data behind the headlines is just as striking. Compass reports the San Francisco single-family median at $2.05 million in September, up 17 percent year over year. Sales at $3 million and above are up 77 percent year over year; sales at $5 million and above are up 109 percent. The California Association of Realtors puts the San Francisco County median at $2,054,000, up 17.4 percent, and the Marin median at $1,678,750, up 1.7 percent. Roughly 92 percent of San Francisco's September sales closed above asking. The SF Standard notes September had the fewest listings since 2020, and broker Joseph Lucier called the overbids "astronomical."

It is happening at $1.2 million too

The mansion numbers make good reading, but the same dynamic is playing out in ordinary neighborhoods.

2162 14th Avenue in Golden Gate Heights, a four-bedroom, two-bath house, listed September 30 at $1,195,000 and sold October 22 for $2,361,000. That is 97.6 percent over asking in 14 days. 1696 8th Avenue in the Inner Sunset, three bedrooms and three baths, listed at $1,696,000 and sold October 21 for $3,169,600, 86.9 percent over.

Those are not trophy properties. They are the kind of homes that families in San Francisco have owned for decades and that heirs are now deciding what to do with.

What sellers should take from this

First, the list price is a strategy, not a prediction. 20 Cherry did not sell for $28.5 million because someone guessed wrong by $10 million. It sold for that because $18.5 million brought every serious buyer in the city through the door in the same week and let them compete. The same is true of a $1,195,000 list price in Golden Gate Heights. An aggressive list price is not a discount. It is an invitation.

Second, preparation matters as much as price. A 40-year family home with deferred maintenance and three generations of furniture can still achieve full value, but it needs a plan: what to clear, what to repair, what to leave alone, and in what order. The sellers of 20 Cherry had the resources and the advice to do that. Most estates I work with have less of the first and need more of the second.

Third, a trust or an estate is not a reason to sell quietly or at a discount. I hear from heirs regularly who assume a probate or trust sale has to be fast, off-market, and as-is. None of that is required, and the Lurie sale is the clearest possible proof. The trustees took a house that had been in the family for more than four decades, prepared it, priced it to invite competition, and let the market do the rest.

Fourth, inventory is the real story. The fewest September listings since 2020 is why 92 percent of sales are closing over asking. If you have been waiting for a better time to sell a long-held home, you are living in it. Conditions like this tend to shift faster than people expect once more listings arrive.

What it means in Marin

Marin's median is up a much more modest 1.7 percent, so the overbid frenzy is more muted north of the bridge. But the lesson about preparation and pricing travels. A long-held home in Mill Valley or San Anselmo that is cleared out, repaired where it counts, and priced to draw a crowd will outperform the same house listed high and left to sit. Low inventory helps sellers everywhere; strategy decides by how much.

One last thought on 20 Cherry

Nina Hatvany's "worth every penny" quote is the buyer's side. The seller's side is quieter: a family closed a chapter on a house their mother lived in for 40 years and did it in a way that honored its value. That is the outcome I want for every estate I work on, at every price point.

Sources: SF Business Times, Oct 25, 2026; Compass Agent Search, Oct 25, 2026; California Association of Realtors, Oct 19, 2026; The Real Deal, Oct 16, 2026 (Compass data); SF Standard, Oct 25, 2026. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.