These pricey San Francisco homes still haven't sold

By Anna Marie Erwert,SFGATE Contributor

2024 was a good year for upscale Bay Area properties. Luxury homes, especially those priced above $5 million, sold significantly better in 2024 compared with 2023, and especially so in San Francisco.

“There were much larger increases in the numbers of luxury home sales than in the general market,” Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst for Compass, told SFGATE in an email. “I ascribe this to the tremendous jumps in stock markets to successive new peaks, which had enormous effects on the household wealth and economic optimism of the most affluent households.”

Yet some of San Francisco’s most glorious mansions didn’t sell this year, and despite jaw-dropping amenities, history and views, some of these homes were even on the list for the most expensive properties unsold in 2023. Accordingly, as 2025 draws near, many of these trophy homes are now for sale at significant discounts from their original list prices. 

So now without further ado, the top five most expensive unsold properties for 2024.

5. 21 Everson St.

A unique and modern mansion, 21 Everson St. is a multi-level, 9,850-square-foot home with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms. It rises along the side of the Glen Park hillside, an angular design that features a 60-foot-wide main level that looks directly out on unobstructed San Francisco views from its many windows. These views surround the side and back of the house so that every room faces them, the walls of glass creating an invisible border between the sylvan exterior and the contemporary interior. 

The home is a tech entrepreneur’s playground, offering an electric vehicle charger, reverse osmosis drinking water and radiant heat. A roof terrace, accessed via retractable skylight, features an outdoor kitchen and 270-degree views. There is also a 22-person theater, a wine room and wet bar, a large one-bedroom, one-bath guest suite with its own kitchen and living room, as well as immediate access to public woodland. 

In spite of all of these amenities, 21 Everson St. was on the list of lingering luxury for 2023, then asking $22 million as the new year rolled in. Now with 2025 on the horizon, this property has reduced its price to $19.995 million.

4. 540 El Camino Del Mar (This property is pending after 100 days as of January 9)

In 2023, 540 El Camino Del Mar made news not only for being a spectacular and historic ocean view mansion in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood, but also for being the home of the late Robin Williams and his former wife Marsha Garces Williams. The Williams family lived in this for over 30 years, raising their children here. They also made substantial changes to the property, but sought to honor its historic pedigree.

After purchasing the mansion in the early ’90s, “Marsha and Robin Williams took the house down to the studs and rebuilt it, updating all the major systems. They expanded the home to its current 10,598 square feet on three levels,” Compass agent Steven Mavromihalis told SFGATE in an October 2023 email. “However they took great pains to preserve the rare and valuable building materials used in 1926, which are simply no longer available in the construction of modern homes.”

The result is an Italian Renaissance home offering six bedrooms, five full bathrooms and three half-baths with an elaborately landscaped exterior, retractable walls opening upon stone patios and gardens overlooking the Pacific and San Francisco Bay. 

Despite its modern innovations, the mansion still emulates the grandeur of its original design, the work of Earle B. Bertz, principal architect for Allen & Co., the firm credited with creating Sea Cliff’s distinctive character. It was built in 1926, commanding a 17,149-square-foot lot — “one of San Francisco’s largest flat, walled, and gated residential estate lots,” the official listing said. 

Originally listed in October 2023 for $25 million, this property was on the list for the most expensive unsold homes of the year despite a $5 million price cut. Now, it’s on the same list, but for 2024, still asking $20 million.

3. 2006 Washington St., No. 10

This co-op apartment, which spans an entire floor of one of San Francisco’s most distinctive buildings, listed in March 2024. At the time, the 5,700-square-foot apartment was the most expensive listing on the local market, asking $35 million. The building, with its iconic pink façade, was designed by Conrad Meussdorffer, one of San Francisco’s elite architects whose work was particularly transformative in Pacific Heights in the early 20th century.

The unit offers three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two half-baths, along with a dramatic formal dining area, updated but somehow still retro perfect kitchen, and a wood-paneled library. Cinematic city views are available on all sides of the apartment, whether from the generous windows or the many terraces. 

Despite its opulence and its position in one of SF’s most treasured towers, this co-op has had a difficult time finding new owners. The San Francisco Business Times reported that there was a $32 million off-market sale in 2015, along with an attempted sale in 2021 with a price tag of $45 million.

After listing for it an eye-popping $35 million in March, the property was reduced to $29 million in July of 2024; in November, it was reduced further to $24 million, which is its current price as the year comes to an end.

2. 2898 Broadway St.

Still on the market after originally listing in August of 2023, 2898 Broadway is a historic property. It was built in 1899, surviving the Great Quake of 1906, losing only two of its chimneys in the disaster. SFGATE reported in 2023 that the 11,000-square-foot mansion was the work of architect Walter D. Bliss, who designed the building for his parents. His father was “the namesake of D.L. Bliss State Park on Tahoe’s west shore, for which the family donated the land,” and Bliss later designed several nearby homes and “prominent downtown San Francisco buildings, including the St. Francis Hotel, with his partner William Baker Faville,” SFGATE reported. 

The features of this home — high ceilings, perfectly framed views of the Palace of Fine Arts, the library and a solarium that spans the entire third floor — maintain the original design, but allow for substantial modern luxury that would suit its current owners, tech investor Jim Willenborg and his wife Barbara Willenborg.

In 2023, when this property listed for $32 million, it made a splash not only for its architectural heritage and price tag and its tech royalty ownership, but also for its Hollywood connection. The mansion’s Dutch Colonial grandeur made it a favorite among location scouts, and it appeared in “Portrait in Black” in 1960; in “Jagged Edge” in 1985; and “Sweet November” in 2001. 

By the end of 2023, still asking $32 million, this historic home represented the second most expensive unsold property on the market. Now in 2024, it’s still in second place for the same dubious honor, but with a reduced price tag of $29 million. 

1. 2990 Broadway

At $32 million, 2990 Broadway is the most expensive mansion still lingering on the SF market. This estate was constructed in 1987 on the last buildable lot of the exclusive Outer Broadway neighborhood, and owned by only one family until it came to market in June of 2024. In an October 2024 email, co-listing agent Stacey Caen of Sotheby’s International Realty told SFGATE that “this property is the most important contemporary architectural home along the Pacific Heights’ Gold Coast. This single-owner sale is very rare and highly attractive to the ultra-high-net-worth buyer.”

A 10,180-square-foot mansion, 2990 Broadway was custom-built for philanthropists Lucy and George Jewett, prominent supporters of the arts in San Francisco as well as world-class sailors — both of whom were inducted into America’s Cup Hall of Fame before their deaths. For sailing enthusiasts, the property’s unobstructed views of the bay, Marin Headlands and beyond would have been a treasured gift, and these vistas wrap around the home, visible from almost every window. In addition to the multimillion-dollar views, the four-bedroom, 10-bathroom Jewett House offers such luxurious amenities as a glassed-in sunroom, a retro wet bar, a library and an indoor hot tub. 

When it came to market in June, the 0.18-acre property’s price tag read $38 million. In October, that price was dropped to $32 million, which at the time was the most expensive residential home on the market. As of December of this year (over 170 days since its initial listing), 2990 Broadway is still the most expensive home on the market.