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A San Francisco home with a long history of squatters has hit the market for 1.3 million and, despite its severe neglect, already has a buyer.
Located on Yukon Street near the city’s historic Castro neighborhood, the abandoned 2,100-square-foot home has been occupied by a rotating group of squatters over the past five years, according to the San Francisco Standard. Neighbors say police have repeatedly been called over the years for drugs, noise and other disturbances.
Property listing photos show boarded-up doors, shattered windows and interior walls covered in graffiti. According to local reports, the property is littered with hypodermic needles and squatters left a poop bucket on the top-floor deck.
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The vacant property also lacks running water and electricity, NBC Bay Area reported.
Despite its condition, listing agents Zara and James Rowbotham said the home has had “nonstop” showings. The property is already listed as under contract on the Vanguard Properties website.
The home’s rapid sale underscores how properties in dilapidated condition can fetch millions of dollars in San Francisco’s limited real estate market.
“If this were a single-family, it would have gone in a minute,” Zara Rowbotham told the SF Standard. “It could have reached something like $2 million.”
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The listing’s surprising success comes amid a rise in squatting incidents in California and across the nation in recent years. According to a New York Times report, a 2024 survey found that 76 percent of California property owners considered squatting a major issue, with 70 percent of respondents saying they had been victimized by squatters or personally knew someone who had been.
In response, several states have passed aggressive legislation allowing law enforcement to immediately arrest unauthorized occupants and bypass traditional court backlogs. California, however, remains a strict outlier.
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Under California law, property owners must go through a lengthy civil eviction process to remove squatters. In the Golden State, squatters are also allowed to legally claim ownership of a property if they occupy it and pay its property taxes for five continuous years.
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