Christopher Neely
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Articles by Christopher Neely
Samin Nosrat, celebrity chef who signed BDS pledge, shares stage with Israeli chefs
Samin Nosrat, who appeared on stage at the JCCSF on Oct. 5, in her 2018 Netflix limited series “Salt Fat Acid Heat.” Photo by Adam Rose/Netflix By Christopher Neely October 11, 2026 (JTA) — (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) When celebrity chef and Bay Area food ambassador Samin Nosrat appeared this week at San Francisco’s JCC alongside two Israeli chefs, it was nearly three years since she pledged not to buy or promote Israeli food.
Celebrity chef who signed BDS pledge shares stage with Israeli chefs in San Francisco
J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA — When celebrity chef and Bay Area food ambassador Samin Nosrat appeared this week at San Francisco’s JCC alongside two Israeli chefs, it was nearly three years since she pledged not to buy or promote Israeli food.
Samin Nosrat, celebrity chef who signed BDS pledge, shares stage with Israeli chefs Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) When celebrity chef and Bay Area food ambassador Samin Nosrat appeared this week at San Francisco’s JCC alongside two Israeli chefs, it was nearly three years since she pledged not to buy or promote Israeli food.
Samin Nosrat, celebrity chef who signed BDS pledge, to share S.F. stage with Israeli chefs
When celebrity chef and Bay Area food ambassador Samin Nosrat appears Monday night at San Francisco’s JCC alongside two Israeli chefs, it will be nearly three years since she pledged not to buy or promote Israeli food.
The fallout from the Transamerica Pyramid continues
Who should shoulder the blame for Germany’s largest public pension fund losing what could be more than half of its $2 billion bet on U.S. real estate?
Downtown SF’s historic Lurie Building now in Silicon Valley hands for $25M
An old downtown San Francisco office building has landed in the hands of two Silicon Valley investors less than a month after a judge evicted Planet Fitness from its first floor. The 10-story, 96,000-square-foot building at 417 Montgomery sold for $25.2 million, according to a representative for the buyer, 417 Montgomery LLC. The sale was recorded on Aug. 31 and generated more than $1.5 million in transfer tax, according to public records.
Money manager unloads cliffside San Francisco condo for $8.5M
After holding the property for decades, a managing partner at a San Francisco investing firm has parted ways with one of the city’s unique homes. Donald Putnam, founder of Grail Partners, and his wife, Susann Kellison, sold their three-level condo at 212 Union Street late last week for $8.5 million, according to public documents. At 4,000 square feet, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home came out to $2,125 per square foot.
New lawsuit claims Germany’s largest pension fund lied about controlling its US real estate bets
The international fallout over a German pension fund’s mismanaged real estate portfolio, spanning more than $2 billion worth of trophy commercial assets across the U.S., just got messier as one of the pensioner’s business partners accused it of lying to the German government about its role in the losses.
Billion-dollar brokerage’s agent allegedly played lawyer to land a listing
A venture-backed brokerage once valued in the billions and one of its agents could be in hot water after they were alleged to have offered illegal attorney representation to a distressed property owner in exchange for a listing agreement. Marjorie Scholtz has had multiple titles — CEO of rent-to-own company Verbhouse and a residential agent working under San Francisco-based brokerage startup Side — but attorney is not one of them.
San Francisco rents are gaining on NYC’s. Its housing pipeline isn’t
Headlines this week fueled the comparison between San Francisco and New York City for the country’s most expensive rental market, yet, a closer look at the housing situation shows these cities diverge in a key metric. Zumper released its national rent report on Monday, showing San Francisco’s median one-bedroom rent, $4,300 — barely edged out by New York City’s $4,500 — while its two-bedroom rent far outpaced the Big Apple, $6,120 to $5,410.
Should I stay or should I go?
Harry Styles’ sold-out, 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden be damned, for New York City’s wealthiest residents, the song of the summer — or, at least, the “dox” days of summer — belongs to the proto-woke 1980s punk quartet, The Clash. Back when the pied-a-terre tax was only a concept, the city’s upper crust wondered, Should I stay or should I go?
Mystery buyer drops $68M on two Presidio Heights homes once owned by Marc Benioff
Two abutting Presidio Heights mansions once owned by a familiar tech mogul quietly sold last week for a combined $67.8 million, according to public records. The 16,000-square-foot home at 3277 Pacific Avenue, one of San Francisco’s few truly sprawling estates, sold for $55.8 million on Aug. 20, a little more than $3,500 per square foot. The seller was listed only as Jackson Presidio Trust, with trustee Paola Oviedo signing off on the deed.
"Blown away": Pacific Heights home sells fast for $6.6M after racking up 16 offers and obliterating list price
When agent Natalie Kitchen listed her client's four-bedroom Pacific Heights home earlier this month at $3.99 million, she figured the "deliberately low" price would draw several offers and eventually sell for somewhere in the high $4 million range, maybe $5 million. After all, August is a traditionally slow time for homebuyers. Located just blocks from the Presidio of San Francisco, the 2,600-square-foot home at 2033 Baker Street hit the market Aug.
“Unicorn” SF condo sold by 1-800 Contacts founder fetches single offer, closes under asking price
As aspirational as 30-foot ceilings, 5,400 square feet of living space and a front door that opens onto Dolores Park might sound, the agents who listed 653 Dolores Street figured it was too niche to attract the kind of frenzy that has recently defined San Francisco’s residential market.
Lurie keeps posting, condos keep climbing, and San Francisco buyers keep ignoring the price tag
In just the last seven days, second-year San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has added 26 Instagram posts to his page, three quarters of which feature him hyping up the city on its streets, in its parks or from inside small businesses. Cheery ubiquity has been part of his schtick, and its effect on San Francisco’s recent success has been an ongoing debate.
From “f-ck off” to “game on”: Institutional capital is flooding into SF apartments
Outside Bluestone Lane coffee shop, a favorite haunt of downtown San Francisco’s brokerati, Ryan Wagner paused to take in the street’s mid-morning hum, remembering the more idle days — for both the city and real estate agents like himself — following the pandemic. “Two, three years ago, it was kind of depressing working in commercial real estate here,” Wagner said on a recent Wednesday.
VC firm that seeded Substack, Sam Altman’s side hustle drops $8 million for resi condo HQ
A significant source of venture capital money, lifeblood of the artificial intelligence and wider tech industries, found a new home in San Francisco earlier this month. Prominent San Francisco-based VC firm Fifty Years, or 50Y, dropped $8 million on a Corona Heights residential condo last week, according to public records. The sale closed on Aug.
Forget the 2010s tech boom: SF’s latest overbidding era just set a new record
Offering to pay a little more to secure a new house is nothing new in San Francisco, but the bidding wars playing out for single-family homes across the city’s neighborhoods have reached new heights. Homebuyers in July paid an average of 26 percent over asking price to land their new digs. That’s the highest overbid ratio of the last 21 years at least, according to new data by Compass.
Bezos, Musk trigger turning point for Oakland R&D, office markets
It only took two days and two of the world’s wealthiest men to shake Oakland from its years-long, post-pandemic nap. Since 2020, Oakland has struggled to regain the optimism of the late 2010s tech boom. Many office tenants pulled up their stakes, all three of the city’s major professional sports left, crime rose and street conditions devolved. As the AI party has raged in San Francisco and spread to Silicon Valley, Oakland has looked on, waiting for an invitation.
Bezos and Musk snuggle up in Oakland, while institutional capital bets big on SF apartments
All aboard the hype train! Wait, this is just a BART, and it’s headed to … West Oakland? While it’s unlikely that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk will ever again sit among the plebians in a public transit car, the locations of their newest manufacturing plants could lead to quite a few more passengers in the Bay Area. Within a matter of two days, two of the world’s wealthiest men decided Oakland would be the backdrop for their companies’ next chapters.
Stockbridge buys Potrero Hill apartments for $132M in SF’s priciest multifamily bet in two years
In one of the most expensive multifamily purchases of the last five years, an institutional player spent $132 million to claim a piece of one of San Francisco’s hottest sectors, in arguably its hottest neighborhood. Last week, an entity tied to San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Group purchased Alta Potrero, a 172-unit luxury multifamily property in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, where proximity to employers such as Open AI and Y Combinator has sent housing demand skyrocketing.
Before ChatGPT, San Francisco had 23 AI tenants. It now has 413.
In just a matter of a few years, artificial intelligence has gone from a fringe industry to an economic engine — with companies in the sector now occupying one in every 10 square feet of office space in San Francisco. As of last week, AI companies had committed to 2.4 million square feet of office space since the start of the year, JLL’s Alexander Quinn said.
On the block?: FivePoint phases Candlestick for sell-off as resi market moves
Before new homes you need roads, and FivePoint Holdings is about to spend a nine-figure chunk of its own capital as the firm prepares to carve San Francisco’s southeasternmost plot into something resembling a neighborhood. Next month, FivePoint Holdings will break ground on Candlestick, the 270-acre masterplanned community that envisions 7,200 homes, nearly 3 million square feet of office and research and development space, as well as retail and parks.
In SF’s frenzied overbid era, this Pac Heights home took a price cut and two years to sell
San Francisco’s overbidding frenzy be damned. A four-story, four-bedroom home with views of the Golden Gate Bridge in one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods sold for $400,000 under its initial list price after nearly two years on the market. The Pacific Heights home at 2881 Vallejo Street, only a block away from the Presidio of San Francisco, sold for $11.1 million on July 31. It originally hit the market for $11.5 million in October 2024.
Residents across four CA cities trying to take back control of housing through ballot measures
Over the last decade, as the California Legislature has worked to preempt local governments’ authority over new housing supply, cities have tried to claw it back — most recently through citizen-initiated ballot measures. This tactic involves residents subverting city council processes by drafting new laws and gathering enough support to place the question to voters in an election.
Atherton is the country’s priciest zip code again, and Santa Clara County’s commercial sector heats up
With all the tech and artificial intelligence wealth pouring into the Greater Bay Area, it was only a matter of time before Atherton reclaimed its seat as the country’s most expensive zip code. The median sale price through July in Atherton hit $9.9 million in 2026, a 20 percent increase compared with the same time period last year, according to PropertyShark.
The shopping spree helping to turn around San Francisco’s Union Square
A Texan and a New Yorker hitting an extended shopping spree and looking for bargains in San Francisco’s Union Square might sound like a typical Saturday for the city’s renown retail district. In this case, however, the pair are well-known real estate investors, the shopping spree has continued for more than two years, and their investments are playing a key role in turning around the fortunes for one of downtown San Francisco’s most embattled neighborhoods.
Pacific Heights mansion asking $7.5M sells for $12M
When Sotheby’s agent Janet Schindler went to list the four-bed, four-bath Pacific Heights mansion in late June, she wanted to set expectations for her client despite the frenzied market. “I told them that if they weren’t going to be happy with $7.5 million, then we shouldn’t price it there,” Schindler, who has been selling San Francisco homes for four decades, told The Real Deal.
San Francisco homeowners ask for — and get — their “make-me-move” number
Many homeowners have some fantastical number in the back of their mind that, if offered, would motivate them to drop everything and start anew. Often this is a daydream. For homeowners in San Francisco, thanks to the AI boom, those numbers are quickly becoming a reality. “We have people tell us, ‘Sure, if I could get this number for my house, then I would consider moving,’” said Compass agent Andrew Oldham. “Now, they’re actually having to test that against reality because, guess what?
Doubling down on Downtown, Parkmerced loses another chunk, and a condo bet barely breaks even
More of Downtown San Francisco’s property owners are shouldering the responsibility to defend the neighborhood against another doom loop scenario. Major land holders, from Vornado and Hines, to Shorenstein Properties and BXP, voted Tuesday to expand the boundaries of the local community benefit district and, through special assessments, fund the Downtown San Francisco Partnership.
Former Charles Schwab CEO sells SF condo after 10 years. How did he only make $18K?
San Francisco’s luxury housing market may be stealing headlines across the country, but not all home sellers are exiting with startling profits. In a move reflective of how the artificial intelligence industry is accelerating a changing-of-the-guard among San Francisco’s upper crust, David Pottruck, the former CEO of Charles Schwab who now chairs the Woodside-based Hightower Advisors, sold his three-bed, three-bath condo on July 15 for just under $6.7 million — barely breaking even.
Who was Clint Reilly?
When it came to the levers of power, Clint Reilly was a sort of Renaissance man. In the wake of his death on July 19, Reilly leaves behind a decades-long legacy of substantial local sway in commercial real estate, media, politics and philanthropy.
SF’s housing frenzy migrates to Marin, Ian Jacobs doubles down downtown, Transamerica gets moving
There is a long tradition behind the San Francisco to Marin County pipeline, with the Golden Gate Bridge representing a sort of threshold between eras of life. Young, well-to-do families ready to exit hustle and bustle often choose Marin for its spacious homes, highly-regarded public schools, and proximity to the city. Lately, Marin has seen a surge of people from the city searching for a home, but it’s hardly motivated by a chosen life transition.
“There is no ceiling”: Welcome to Area AI Original
Fresh out of Stanford University, a young AI founder wanted to take the next step in the hallowed San Francisco startup playbook: purchase a so-called hacker house, fill it with his small team, and buckle down to build a company. He set his sights on Potrero Hill, a quiet, suburbanesque neighborhood that has experienced a breathless glow-up after OpenAI established its headquarters in the adjacent Mission Bay three years ago. For his first-choice home, the founder wanted to come in strong.
“Have people lost their minds?”: Frustrated would-be SF homebuyers set sights on Marin
When a six bedroom house in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood hit the market for $8 million in late April and closed within two weeks for nearly double its asking price, it marked an eye-popping example of the city’s frenzied housing landscape. Good homes in good locations are seeing dozens of offers, and even those willing to pay millions over asking price are struggling to win bidding wars in San Francisco.
A Buffett protege said to have bet nearly $49M on Union Square retail
Within the same week that San Francisco’s highly anticipated downtown dead mall redevelopment deal died, the city’s luxury retail sector got a major vote of confidence. A buyer listed as Delaware corporation Silver Gate Property II LLC, purchased the prominent four-story retail and office building at 180 Post Street for $48.5 million — a little more than $1,200 per square foot — on July 2, according to public documents.
A surge in overbidding, an office boom flows south and a dead dead-mall deal
Got an extra million? Purchasing a home in San Francisco has long required deep pockets, with its median home price remaining above $1 million since 2014. Now, competition has grown so fierce for a slice of Fog City that even the wealthiest would-be residents are failing to find a foothold. If you want to close a deal today, particularly at the higher ends of the market, it increasingly requires an extra million dollars, according to new data from Compass.
This time, San Francisco’s office boom is flowing south
San Francisco’s office leasing boom shows no signs of slowing down, and its effect on the greater region — especially Silicon Valley — is accelerating. The Bay Area has always sustained on a geographic symbiosis, though experts say this latest boom is peculiar because of its inversion. In previous up cycles, the anchor companies often started in Silicon Valley — think Google, Meta, Apple — and eventually expanded north to capture the young, urbanite talent of the big city.
SF brokers have a new question for homebuyers: Got an extra million?
As wealth and competition abounds, getting into San Francisco’s luxury housing market has perhaps never been more difficult. And now, buyers shopping the listings have to increasingly ask themselves whether they have an extra million dollars in their budget. In the first six months of 2026, 144 San Francisco homes sold for at least $1 million over their asking prices, with 44 in June alone, according to a new report from Compass. Only eight such deals happened over that same span in 2025.
Ken Mattson has a trial date. Silicon Valley’s office recovery has momentum.
A trial date has been set in the Ken Mattson saga. The Sonoma developer and investor is alleged to have defrauded hundreds of people out of tens of millions of dollars in a years-long Ponzi scheme. The jury trial will begin on April 12, federal Judge Jon S. Tigar decided on Wednesday.
Before the IPO spree: Bay Area residential rankings
When Bay Area agent Ken DeLeon took over the listing for 35 Barry Lane in February, the sprawling Atherton estate had sat on the market for three years with no offers. After cosmetic upgrades and international marketing, DeLeon re-listed the property for $24 million. Within nine days, he had three offers. Two were from China, another came from an executive in the artificial intelligence industry. The tie went to AI, and the buyer paid just above the listed price.
California’s transfer tax fight just got upended. And Bay Area sellers want to be paid in AI stock
Over the last several weeks, California has experienced a transfer tax whiplash that has shaken up budgets, home buying and development. Last month, a citizen-led initiative which proposed capping local real estate transfer taxes at 0.11 percent qualified for the statewide November ballot.
D.C.’s real estate industry braces for democratic socialist mayor
Washington D.C.’s real estate industry is bracing for another source of uncertainty after voters nominated democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George for mayor at a time when the city’s economy is already under strain. Lewis George’s primary victory all but guarantees she will become the city’s next mayor, raising fresh questions among developers about whether investors will continue putting money into a market already battered by office distress, federal job cuts and slowing construction.
Who is Buffy Wicks? Meet the legislator dividing California real estate
Buffy Wicks, the four-term California legislator who ignited a real estate firestorm this week with a proposal to cap transfer taxes statewide, signaled her priorities months ago. “In 2026, I’m interested in attending fewer bill signing ceremonies and more ribbon cuttings,” Wicks wrote in a blog on Nov. 24. Despite authoring 56 bills in the 2025-2026 legislative session — four more than the previous session — Wicks argued that legislative victories mean little if they don’t produce more housing.
Two more Presidio Heights homes reach $10M range as luxury supply dwindles
Presidio Heights is proving to be a center of gravity as luxury housing supply in San Francisco vanishes and the city’s well-to-do scramble to claim their slice of the artificial intelligence industry’s nerve center. On the same day last week, the city recorded two home sales in the wealthy neighborhood for $9.2 million and $10 million. The first reflected the fortunes being created by the AI industry.
Office boom hit 30-year high, Mattson faced his victims, three mansions traded
In a town of booms and busts, it takes a lot to surprise real estate industry insiders. However, the speed and heft of the city’s turnaround over the last two years is hurtling toward record numbers. In the residential sector, the median home price sits around $2.2 million, and rent for a one-bedroom is $4,000, both all-time highs. Meanwhile, the AI industry has created an office leasing frenzy, almost single-handedly lifting the city’s commercial real estate sector out of its post-pandemic pit.
Forget cash. These Bay Area sellers want AI stock
A mansion in Marin, a sprawling estate in Wine Country, and an Edwardian tenancy-in-common on a tree-lined street in San Francisco, each go up for sale, priced in the millions. Each goes viral. The reason wasn’t the architecture, the views or even the asking price. The sellers wanted pre-IPO shares in OpenAI or Anthropic. A publicity stunt? That was the gut reaction of several local agents. None of the homes have been sold in AI-stock deals.
$25M Pac Heights Victorian trades after less than two weeks on market
Amid a tight luxury market and booming wealth leaving San Francisco with more millionaires than mansions, one the city’s rare properties — on arguably its premiere street — drew a new buyer earlier this month. Listed for $25 million, the nine-bed, eight-bath Queen Anne Victorian home at 2315 Broadway Street in Pacific Heights hit the market on May 7 for the first time in nearly 60 years.
San Francisco’s mansion shortage claims two more trophy homes
One of San Francisco’s wealthy northern enclaves, known for attracting tech executives, drew two major trades totaling $32 million last week as the city’s mansion shortage tightens. At the corner of Jackson and Locust streets in the tree-lined Presidio Heights neighborhood, the founder of a popular themed restaurant chain off-loaded his five-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion for $21 million.
Ken Mattson fraud case moves toward trial as victims await their day in court
As Ken Mattson exited federal court Monday, he kept his gaze to the floor while walking past pews packed with dozens of the victims in his alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme. The room was silent, except for one of the victims repeatedly whispering “seppuku” at Mattson, the Japanese ritual of honorable suicide after disgrace and disloyalty. The victims, almost entirely of retirement age, had traveled from across the Greater Bay Area to federal Judge Jon S.
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