When wealth meets wellness: SF’s young and rich are buying longevity sanctuaries

Plus, after braving the Bay Area’s cutthroat real estate market, these forward-looking buyers do not want to reenter it any time soon. That means they’re willing to shell out for a home with enough space to accommodate future children, plus an ADU and an elevator for aging parents who may move in down the line. And unlike generations before, they’ve made enough money to skip the starter house and leap directly from a one-bedroom apartment to a fully staffed mansion.

“Buying a home is such a stressful experience that people go, ‘You know what? I’m just going to take the leap today, and I’m not going to have to do this again,’” Carvajal said.

The ultimate luxury? A forever home by 30

Young techies have made up a significant portion of San Francisco’s buyer pool for decades. But AI has changed how quickly they are able to cash out — and how significant the paydays are.

“The Googles and the Facebooks took 15 or 20 years to have that equity be worth a lot,” said City Real Estate agent Alexander Lurie. “Now, instead of people waiting decades to get their wealth, they’re waiting single-digit years. We’re seeing them about 10 years earlier than before, and the amount of wealth they have is so staggering.”

This generation is unlikely to buy a sexy downtown loft that’s well-suited for their current life but may not be right in a few years. Instead, they’re plunking down big bucks for something practical and private, like a big house on an even bigger lot in a prime neighborhood. They might have to move for jobs or schools. But if they don’t, they want a place that can conceivably work for whatever the long term might bring.

Many of Lurie’s clients are in their 30s — some are in their late 20s — and though they may not have kids yet, they want them eventually. As a

, Lurie encourages them to think beyond needing a guest room for their in-laws. Can this house accommodate a night nurse or a nanny? What about other full-time staff?

Despite recent concerns from within the AI community about

, Lurie’s AI-funded clients are buying as if they’ll be around for a long, long time.

“A lot of my clients have the financial wherewithal that they can afford to buy something that could serve them for 10,15, 20 years, no problem,” he said. “For the rest of their life.”

Wellness for the win

Tyler Stewart doesn’t want to sound old, but these kids today are an entirely different breed.

“We had to live within our means, and their means are just very different these days,” said the Heath Real Estate agent, who is 48. “I mean, if you told me at 25 that I could buy a $10 million home, hell yeah, I would want to do that, because it checks so many more boxes.”

But checking all the boxes today involves a whole lot of “wellness.” Agents say temperature-controlled wine storage units are being rebranded as alcohol-agnostic “beverage coolers,” and wet bars are becoming coffee stations. The motto of the moneyed elite has shifted from “work hard, play hard” to “work hard, recover, work hard again.”

Buyers are also increasingly anxious about what’s lurking in their environment, from radiation coming off overhead electrical wires to plastics in artificial turf. Even golf-course living, long a staple of luxury housing, has lost its luster for those worried about the pesticides that keep the fairways green.

Stewart has been surprised by just how intense buyers are about their in-home wellness must-haves. The owners of her $10 million Sausalito listing installed a home gym with a Peloton and treadmill, sauna, steam shower, and glass-framed solarium. Apparently, however, this is no longer enough. She brought three under-30 AI founders through the house, and all mentioned expanding the gym or expressed disappointment that there wasn’t a second sauna on the deck to take advantage of the hillside views.

“Every single person in this house is talking about how they would add on to what is already a very significant wellness area,” she said.

Stewart, who was a professional Ironman competitor for a decade, understands the appeal. Her Sausalito home has a sauna, cold plunge, vibrating power plate, red light, and hot tub. She lives right by Fjord, a Finnish-style sauna that floats atop nature’s cold plunge, the San Francisco Bay. Two weeks worth of sauna appointments are snapped up in minutes when they are released each Sunday at 9 a.m.

“People are having sauna, jump in the bay parties,” said Stewart, who has attended several. “They are adding these things to their homes, and instead of having friends over for drinks, they’re having friends over for a cold plunge.”

Developing desire

These newly monied clients aren’t just preoccupied with their physical fitness. They also want to maximize their most precious resource: time. If a short commute isn’t possible, they’re making the most of it, retrofitting vans with screwed-in Pelotons so they can get in a ride while they take calls — with a driver up front and out of earshot.

Many want a move-in-ready home that’s not cookie-cutter. This year’s San Francisco Decorator Showcase home, which was all about layered texture, sold for $25 million in less than a month to a tech buyer who toured it during the private-school fundraiser and returned with an all-cash offer.

High-end home developers have picked up on the trend, investing in bespoke amenities they think will speak to a new generation of longevity-minded buyers. That means meticulously landscaped Zen gardens, full-home filtration systems and air conditioning to address concerns about “orange sky” days and climate change, and design choices that speak to today’s buyer.

“The tendency a few years ago was everything open-plan, but now it’s a little bit different,” said luxury home developer Felim O’Reilly. “You need your hideout space.”

The monotonous white-and-gray motif that dominated new-build homes for so long seems to be disappearing. Younger buyers are drawn to color and contrast, experts say. For his latest project at 326-328 27th St. in Noe Valley, O’Reilly put in heavily veined marbles, bright tiles, and dark Shinnoki-veneer cabinetry to play off the light-colored, wide-plank floors. Some things buyers want are in direct opposition to each other, like heavily insulated walls as well as “internet up the yin-yang,” he said. He puts boosters on every floor and hard wires to accommodate these conflicting requests.

Young buyers also want a flexible floor plan that accounts for all stages of life. O’Reilly’s Noe Valley home has an ADU, perfect as a home office or for extended family stays. It also has two primary suites, one on the main bedroom level for parents who want to be near their kids, and another on the top floor for when those kids get older and everyone craves more distance. Passersby have asked if it has an elevator (it does), since that amenity is great for kids and grandparents alike.

“It is future-proof,” O’Reilly said. “There’s nothing left to think about.”