2175 STANFORD Ave Mountain View, CA 94040

$665,000

Beds:	2
Baths:	2
Sq. Ft.:	900
$/Sq. Ft.:	$739
Lot Size:	5,460 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Contemporary
Stories:	1
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1940
Community:	San Antonio
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	80954396
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	67 days

This home is in good condition with a potential opportunity to use your creativity and expand or rebuild into a new home. It is located in a great neighborhood. Walking distance from Rengstorff Park, Mountain View Recreation Division and close to the San Antonio Shopping Center. With some of the best schools in the Los Altos School District nearby.

Should Money Buy You Privileged Access to a Public School System?

Schoolhouse In Palo Alto it does. Give Palo Alto Partners in Education — the district-wide foundation that supports all schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District — $2,500 and you get priority notification about middle and high school tours along with an invitation to a cocktail party with other wealthy donors to the district.

Give $5,000 and you get the same privileged access to information and the same exclusive chance to network with the community’s financial elite, plus an invite to a "special group event with the PAUSD superintendent."

Give over $10,000 and you get all the above, and an "invitation to individual discussion with PAUSD superintendent."

The message here is clear: in Palo Alto wealth buys differentiated access to the Superintendent of a public school district, membership of an inner ‘circle’ of local influencers and priority over the less well-off in visiting publicly-owned facilities.

Thanks to Burbed reader Herve for this find. A great post on SVMoms!

Personally I think this is a great idea. Let’s face it, we live in a market driven economy. Not a planned, socialist economy. It makes sense that if you invest more in your children, you will get better results. I don’t think there should be any outrage here.

Personally, I think you should be able to buy your grades, and even college acceptances – but let’s just start at buying good teachers and principals, without having to be all flashy and sending your kids to private school.

What? You don’t agree?

I’m tagging this post with the “Bay Area Schools” category. I’d appreciate it if you could help me find some older posts that should also get this tag.

San Jose’s Historic Downtown (CA) (Images of America) (Paperback)
Lauren Miranda Gilbert (Author)

San Jose is the Capital of the Silicon Valley the high-rise, economic engine of advanced technology. Yet it was once a verdant valley, inhabited by wildlife, waterfowl, and the native Ohlone people. The Spanish who founded California’s first civilian settlement here in 1777 named it for Saint Joseph, the patron saint of the Spanish Expedition. Their farms fed the soldiers at the Monterey and San Francisco presidios, beginning an agricultural industry that thrived for nearly 200 years. Although serving briefly as California’s first state capital, for many decades downtown was the somewhat sleepy commercial center of the Santa Clara Valley. A housing and population expansion that began in the 1950s exploded with San Jose’s rebirth as a technological mecca.

Let’s face it – it’s all too often that we overlook the gem that is San Jose’s historic downtown. It’s like any other bustling metropolis, just lacking… uh… the bustle. Heck, it even served as the first state capital!

For those of you who don’t own real estate yet, you should buy this book so you can look back and reflect on how if you had invested in San Jose’s downtown earlier, you’d be… someone who owns real estate in San Jose’s downtown today.

More importantly, what will be the next chapter for San Jose’s downtown? Let’s be frank – overtaking Manhattan is probably a stretch for a long time to come. But… could it at least achieve parity with San Francisco? What could San Jose do to make its downtown better?

When you’re not busy brainstorming a better Downtown San Jose, you can help make sure this site continues to be great! Click this link to learn more about donating to this site’s hosting costs!

1225 SAN RAYMUNDO Rd Hillsborough, CA 94010

Listed at: $7,990,000

Beds:	12
Baths:	13.5
Sq. Ft.:	11,850
$/Sq. Ft.:	$674
Lot Size:	3.08 Acres
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Tudor
Stories:	3
View:	Bay, Neighborhood
Year Built:	1931
Community:	Hillsborough Knolls
County:	San Mateo
MLS#:	81000295
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Pending Without Release This listing is in escrow, past inspections and waiting for loan funding. "Without Release" indicates that the current buyer doesn’t need to sell a home to buy the new home.
On Redfin:	19 days

ABSENTEE OWNER SAYS SELL, gRAND ESTATE WITH 12BR/12BA PLUS 3 HALF BA’S, REMODELED, NEW MASTER BR WITH AIR CON, NEW APPLIANCES & FLOOR IN KITCHEN, SAUNA, VINEYARD, TENNIS COURT, NEW HOME THEATER, WHAT A DEAL! SELLER RESERVES RIGHT TO REJECT ANY OFFER.

AOL Builds Up Local Presence Amid Turnaround Push

AOL Inc. is bolstering its Silicon Valley presence as it seeks to tap the region’s engineering talent and entrepreneurialism, making it the latest in a long line of tech firms not based here to boost their Bay Area foothold.

Even as it lays off a third of its total work force, or 2,300 employees, AOL is increasing its Bay Area staff from 300 people to as many as 600 this year. The New York-based Internet company is hiring sales professionals, engineers and others to work on the technology systems that power its advertising, instant messaging and other Web products and services. It also is trying to strengthen its ties to the start-up community, largely through a new venture-capital arm that will invest in local companies.

…

Meanwhile, Finland-based Nokia opened a research center in Palo Alto in 2006. In August, mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Sweden’s Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp., announced a new division in San Jose that will focus on the convergence between mobile and Internet.

The buildup is likely to bolster the Bay Area’s job and real-estate markets, which have held up relatively well compared with other parts of California during the recession. AOL currently is negotiating a lease for a new office space to house its expansion and plans to consolidate operations now spread among four offices in Mountain View and San Francisco.

The Valley is back! The predictions of 10% appreciation this year – in the bag!

When FaceBook and Zynga and Twitter IPO? Watch out Manhattan! We are totally going to crush you!

389 HOWARD Dr Santa Clara, CA 95051

$935,000

Beds:	3
Baths:	2
Sq. Ft.:	2,300
$/Sq. Ft.:	$407
Lot Size:	7,695 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Stories:	1
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1959
Community:	Santa Clara
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	80955862
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	50 days

Price Reduced. Treasure awaits behind these doors! This house completes all your wishes. Great school, great neighbors, great neighborhood. High school awarded perfect API score of 10. Completely updated with remodeled kitchen with granite counters, bathrooms, hardwood, windows and carpet. Easy access to freeway, Cupertino Sq. , and Ranch99.

Thanks to Burbed reader sonarrat for this find!

Who doesn’t like treasure hunts? Here let’s look at one such treasure immediately behind the doors:

That green wall? Quick we need Nicholas Cage to tell us what’s behind it!

Otherwise, this is actually a pretty reasonably priced house for the semi-Real Bay Area. Cupertino schools for just $400 per square foot? Sounds like a deal to me!

It’s Search Engine Thursday!

Recently someone visited this site by searching for: average home appreciation rate bay area

Wow… that’s a pretty good question. Unfortunately, it’s not clear whether the intent is to learn more about the past or the future.

Looking at the past, it’s pretty clear…

Real Estate prices nearly double every 10 years. It makes sense because every 10 years, something comes along and makes everyone incredibly rich – Google, Apple, etc. And, desirability continues to soar. Have you seen how many frozen yogurt places have opened up lately? Desirable!

And, of course, as we all know – anyone who bought a house in 1978 for $100,000 in the Valley is likely sitting on a $1.5 million dollar gold mine.

Now… the future? That’s a bit tricky. Personally I think there should be a 15% Year Over Year appreciation – it makes sense after all. They’re not building more land (except in places where they are.) The Bay Area is becoming more desirable (except for the rotting schools and roads.) The citizens only continue to be smarter and smarter. And the weather will only get warmer (thanks global warming!)

But that’s long term. We may need to deal with sub-optimal 5%-10% year over year appreciation in the meantime.

1755 PEACOCK Ave Mountain View, CA 94043

$1,080,000

Beds:	4
Baths:	3
Sq. Ft.:	842
$/Sq. Ft.:	$1,283
Lot Size:	6,200 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Stories:	2
Year Built:	1950
Community:	North Shoreline
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	81001504
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	8 days

Lot clear and ready to build! List price reflects home being built by owner/builder as approved by the city. Permits in place. Plans for a gorgeous meditteranean-style home with great room concept, large gourmet kitchen with island, ground floor bdrm & bath, spacious master suite w/ balcony, 2 car garage & much more!

Why yes! That’s exactly what I would expect for $1M.

Here’s what Burbed reader M.D. had to say:

this one is so hot they can’t even show a pic.  actually it’s not yet built, so you’re buying a dream in mt view.  if the builder thinks that’s a legit price, maybe someone should take away his wood glue – no sniffing allowed on the job.
btw – i live in that zip code and i don’t think anything has sold for over $900k in the past 1 1/2 yrs – probably nothing over 850k. 

Can’t you just imagine the beauty that you can build here? 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms… with great room concept! Sure it may look like a field of weeds now, but with just another $500,000 you can your Mountain View masterpiece.

More importantly, your house will truly stand out from your neighbors. You know what they say – you want to have the best house in the worst street. Or something like that.

If this isn’t a great deal for those with great imaginations, I don’t know what is!