A five-bedroom mansion at 120 Cherry Street in San Francisco's Presidio Heights neighborhood sold Thursday for $17.2 million, in the latest sign that the city's luxury housing market has flipped its usual script. The 6,174-square-foot home closed at roughly $2,780 per square foot, dwarfing the neighborhood's three-month sale price median of $1,970 per square foot.
The sale was reported by The Real Deal, which detailed the deal's quick turnaround and sizable premium. According to the Corcoran listing, the home was listed on September 21 and closed less than four weeks later for $17.15 million. The property had last traded for $3.7 million in 2007 before undergoing a full rebuild in 2012, according to the same listing of record.
The sellers were Alexander Millar, CEO of San Francisco tech investment firm Bluefish Ventures, and his wife Kristin Millar, an attorney, per the same account. Millar previously served as a board member at PitchBook Data, and he co-founded Bluefish Ventures to make early-stage venture capital investments. Neal Allen Ward held the listing, while Neill Bassi represented the buyer, whose identity was not publicly available, the report notes.
Turnkey Luxury With a Presidio Backyard
The home's amenities include wine storage, a garden, a turf sport court, an entertainment and media room, an exercise room, and a wet bar, according to the report. It sits near Presidio meadows and trails.
The 120 Cherry Street sale lands amid a string of eye-popping overbids in the same stretch of the city. Just weeks earlier, a 5,230-square-foot Edwardian at 3460 Clay Street in Presidio Heights closed for $14.7 million after listing for $11 million — a $3.7 million, or 33.6 percent, premium in just 21 days, according to The Real Deal. Hoodline covered that sale in its piece, nearly $4M over asking, which also cited Compass data showing 144 million-dollar overbids citywide through the first half of 2026.
A Citywide Pattern Upends the Old Playbook
San Francisco's luxury market has been running hot all year. In Pacific Heights, a 6,175-square-foot home at 2833 Vallejo Street sold for $19.4 million on October 13 after listing for $20 million, working out to roughly $3,140 per square foot; the home was sold by retired financial executive Deryck Charles Maughan, who previously held leadership roles at Citigroup and Salomon Brothers, following a 2019 modern redesign by developer Alicia Fang and architect Vivian Lee, according to The Real Deal. That same stretch of Vallejo Street saw an even bigger trade in April, when a 15,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion at 2898 Vallejo sold off-market for $56 million, setting the record for San Francisco's priciest residential sale of the year; that home belonged to TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre, per The Real Deal.
Compass data cited in the report shows nearly 92 percent of San Francisco homes sold above asking in September, the highest share recorded in the firm's data, with the top half of the market averaging sales at 134 percent of asking price that month. Compass analysts Mike Simonsen and Janel Evans-Anderson wrote that the city's typical entry-level bidding pattern reversed this fall — ordinarily, it's San Francisco's starter homes that draw fierce competition while luxury buyers enjoy more room to negotiate. Sales above $5 million rose 109 percent in the first nine months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, per Compass.
A Hayes Street Listing Outside the Traditional Luxury Corridor
The trend isn't confined to Presidio Heights and Pacific Heights. In Cow Hollow, a 5,700-square-foot mansion at 2512 Union Street sold in May for $15 million — $7.05 million, or 88.7 percent, above its $7.95 million list price, setting a 26-year city record for the highest percentage over asking on a home above $5 million, according to Hoodline's earlier report, sends Union Street mansion sky-high. That same spring, a Presidio Heights home at 212 Spruce Street listed for $4.395 million and closed on April 30 for $8.2 million, a roughly 86.6 percent premium, based on Zillow sale records cited in that report.
A Mediterranean-style residence at 1125 Hayes Street near Alamo Square was listed by Compass agent Butch Haze. The Cherry Street and Vallejo Street deals underscore how thin inventory and deep-pocketed buyers have turned San Francisco's priciest listings into some of its most competitive.
