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  • What Are Older Office Towers Worth in the New Era? Second San Francisco Office Tower Sells for 70% Off Original Listing Price

What Are Older Office Towers Worth in the New Era? Second San Francisco Office Tower Sells for 70% Off Original Listing Price

by Wolf Richter Wolf Street

And nearly 60% off the purchase price in 2005. Price discovery sets in. Deals are being made.

The burning question arose over the past two years what these largely empty older office towers in San Francisco are worth.

The market had frozen over. There were no transactions because no one knew what anything was worth as San Francisco’s office market has morphed in just a few years from being one of the hottest office markets in the US with a vacancy rate of 7% in 2019 and some of the highest rents in the US, to being put on ice by working-from-home. About 33% of all office space is now on the market for lease – worse even than Houston, which was for years the worst office market in the US.