Freedom to park anyway you want in Milpitas
372 Fir Tree Ct, Milpitas
$439,999
* Status: Active
* Bedroom: 3
* Bathroom: 2
* Year Built: 1966
* Lot Size: 3000
* Square Footage: 1215
* List Date: 11/26/2007
* Garage Spaces: 2
* MLS#: 764306
*See All Homes for Sale in Milpitas
Bird’s Eye View Pictures
add to favorites |
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Description of 372 Fir Tree Court, Milpitas
SINGLE FAMILY ATTACHED, IN A GREAT FAMILY ORIENTED NEIGHBORHOOD. TILE FLOORS IN KIT, SKYLIGHTS, LOTS LIGHT , NEWER CABINETS AND FLOOR IN KIT. ALL DUAL PANE WINDOWS REDUCED PRICE FOR QUICK SALE. Price and commicons subject to lender’s approval.
Now, I get that this house is on a dead end street. But still - doesn’t parking like that violate the law? Perhaps not. Perhaps this house gives you the freedom to park any god damn way you god damn please. This is the house of freedom! Freedom isn’t free - it’s $439k in Milpitas.
I guess no one will notice over the light din of 880. That’s family oriented 880 to you!
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 am
What the heck are commicons? Is that a CA thing?
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 am
Rename this site East Bay Slum Burbs…
I’m outta here. See Ya in November.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
After Redwood City week, I think, this is Milpitas week for Burbed - another city that was kicked out from RBA. One more short sale, one more 100% financing.
And what does it mean by “ALL DUAL PANE WINDOWS REDUCED PRICE FOR QUICK SALE“?
I get it. Dual Pane –> Noise from I-880. Noise from I-880 —> Price reduction.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 am
well….there is a Comicon convention in San Diego every July. But something tells me they’re not referring to that.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
What the heck are commicons?
———–
I think it should be commission. The guy who wrote the description is probably Spanish-speaking.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Wow, I think that house is actually a step down from a doublewide. At least in a trailer park you get enough space to park.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 am
>>The guy who wrote the description is probably Spanish-speaking.
or Indian.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
It came from imaginación, presentación kind of Spanish pronunciation.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
“All dual pane windows reduced”
“price for quick sale”
I think that means that the dead-end street encouraged a lot of street hockey, which meant the windows met with a few accidents. The second phrase is just missing the “-d.”
Obviously the place is not price for quick sale, since it’s been on MLS 158 days:
Date………… Price
Nov 26, 2007 $521,900
Dec 14, 2007 $508,888
Apr 02, 2008 $439,999
And the punchline to the joke is the last sale price:
Date …….. Price ……. Appreciation
Sep 17, 1999 $265,000 –
May 19, 2004 $438,000 11.4%/yr
Wow! Milpitas is back to 2004 levels! Toto, this is looking a lot like Irvine!
One more thing: Look at that 1999 price: $265K. If this house is now worth less than $439K (it’s been on the market at that price for a month), do you know what this means?
It means this is a property that has failed to double in (just short of) ten years. And nobody here believes that 1999 was the peak of any real estate cycle.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Pralay: DNFTT.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Madhaus,
Keep it civil. Don’t exert bad influence on immigrants.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:39 am
In short — DEBIOI.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
>>Wow! Milpitas is back to 2004 levels!
Time to celebrate. Great time to buy a house next to the freeway!
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
If this house is now worth less than $439K (it’s been on the market at that price for a month), do you know what this means?
————
Although it is in market for quite long, the bank is not in hurry because they are handling too many properties. But I think, eventually, this one will go for foreclosure.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
madhaus, what price do you think this home really worth? 1999 price or below?
I doubt that 1999 was the peak, if that is true the up cycle is only 3 years, but the down cycle preceded it was 5 years. I think this time we overshot way too much, but given inflation adjustment, 1999 prices is probably the right price.
You guys look down on Milpitas a lot, but I lived there for a couple of years in 1997-1998, the housing price in Milpitas was about right (265k) for this house, given its ugliness and next to the freeway. The medium for SFH in Milpitas was probably around $350k in 1998.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
burbed, please take a look at this site and particularly this property (34.5% haircut in Menlo Park):
http://sanmateore.dreamhosters.com/2008/04/1364-windermere-ave-menlo-park-ca-94025/
It is a blog about San Mateo (a big part of RBA) homes.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
You know, I took a look at the listing for this house and it is an attached house, so it’s not comparable with the properties earlier this week. Look at the lotlines too, very long and narrow, and the zoning is R16 (16 units per acre).
rick sez: madhaus, what price do you think this home really worth? 1999 price or below?
I doubt that 1999 was the peak, if that is true the up cycle is only 3 years, but the down cycle preceded it was 5 years. I think this time we overshot way too much, but given inflation adjustment, 1999 prices is probably the right price.
No, I said nobody believes 1999 was the peak. I was commenting on an oft-repeated but demonstrably false statement; that “Bay Area real estate doubles every ten years.” Earlier I had said this isn’t the case when buying at the peak. Now here’s an example where the owner did not buy at the peak, but still won’t double his/her money. This really does look like what’s happening in Irvine, where prices are down more than 25%.
Given the disappearance of liar and ninja loans, $265K could very well be the right price for this house. In a previous Milpitas post I shared the number of foreclosures, which will depress all the comps in the area.
Pralay, you were speculating about foreclosure. When this property was bought in 2004, the owner had 100% financing (the downpayment was a second from a different lender), two loans of $350K (variable) and $88K (fixed). Furthermore, the Recorder’s Office shows no less than four different mortgage or finance companies swapping for each other within a year of purchase. I suspect HELOCity.
If these were 30 year loans, this owner is by definition under water. And that’s true in a couple of ways, because this property is also within the FEMA Flood map A zone, in danger of more than 1 foot of flooding.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
Look at what a card this madhaus is, digging up all kinds of info about this house. Next thing he’ll tell us is who is the owner’s grandmother.
Stop wasting time investigating. A 3000 square foot lot right next to the freeway is not that interesting!
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
madhaus, where do you find that FEMA flood map data on the web?
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Winston, the FEMA flood maps are on propertyshark.com, along with lots of other info. You can see 6 properties a day for free if you register with them. I’ve found mistakes on the site but it’s got some useful info. Please thank Renter for the link.
You can also view maps on FEMA’s site.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Larry Ellison is no longer a management class.
http://sanmateore.dreamhosters.com/category/last-sale-in-2004/
“How Does One Home’s Price Drop Affect an Entire Community?
As we have seen, many homes’ values are dropping in San Mateo. The most drastic cuts are seen in East Palo Alto and Daly City, which are considered the fringes of San Mateo. After six months I was actually able to find a short sale in Woodside. Woodside is a town hidden within many majestic and beautiful redwoods on the west side of 280. It also is home to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s Japanese style palace. This majestic property went on the market last year with no takers. I did see it on MLS last year but the price was concealed. A few days ago it was revealed that Larry did the next best thing. Since he is no longer using the property, he asked for its value to be reassessed. The lavish estate’s value was reduced from $173 million to $69.7 million and Ellison received more than $3 million in a tax refund from San Mateo County. Let’s see, this is a $103.3 million drop, or 59.7%. I think no other San Mateo Home Seller in Trouble listing could ever beat Ellison’s record.
After this happened, it was reported that the Portola Valley School District, which gets income from Woodside properties, will get a cut of $250,000 to $300,000 per year. This cut comes from just one home’s reassessment!
Of course, old Larry is not really a home seller in trouble per se. He has billions of dollars to spend, but if every rich person in Atherton, Burlingame, Menlo Park, and Hillsborough follows his lead. I think we may see more education funding cuts here in our lovely little county.”
Source: http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=1835
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
if every rich person in Atherton, Burlingame, Menlo Park, and Hillsborough follows his lead. I think we may see more education funding cuts here in our lovely little county
I wish I could find the NYT article about this; it argued that the donations made to their children’s private schools by wealthy families, & the resulting charitable tax deductions, effectively take money away from the public schools in the county, because the tax base is reduced.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
^ geez, that’s fu*$’ed
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Argh, I can find it but can’t view it for some reason: it’s this page, top link
It uses Woodside as an example.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
I could go either way on it… I mean, CA public school funding is abysmal regardlesss. We’ve literally got public school parents passing the hat around to pay for PE. Depending on where you live, you may or may not have a public school that’s good to send your kids to. If you use private school, then the private school expects a hefty donation. If you’re making those donations, you should take the deduction.
I mean, for an individual family, each of those decisions is pretty simple & not unethical. But in the aggregate it does seem plausible that it would make things worse. Menlo Park/Atherton might be another case where this is happening.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
I should actually sit down & do the math on this: in my RBA neighborhood, I make a donation to the public school, as I am asked to do by the public school. I then go on to take the deduction as is my God-given right. Does this actually *reduce* the public school funds the next year? Or does it only apply to the big contributors like Larry?
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
Argh, I can find it but can’t view it for some reason: it’s this page, top link
———-
You mean this one?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/06giving.htm
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Argh, I can find it but can’t view it for some reason: it’s this page, top link
———-
You mean this one: Big Gifts, Tax Breaks and a Debate on Charity.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Thanks, Pralay… I’ve either interpreted or remembered the article incorrectly, b/c it’s totally not saying anything about money allocation in public schools, only that there are inequities in donation. Sorry for the mistake.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Madhaus,
Here is a list of houses on sale that are bought in 2004, and they are already underwater with 2004 prices.
http://sanmateore.dreamhosters.com/category/last-sale-in-2004/
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Renter4, here is the money quote (ha ha) from the NYT article, it’s towards the end:
This is true. Most of the schools in CUSD have a private tax-exempt group raising money for it. At my kid’s elementary school, the requested amount, per parent, is over $600 per kid. And at least 80% of the families give that or more.
But going back to Larry’s reassessed house, property tax reductions are contributing to the teacher layoffs in some communities. In the Southland, where property values are collapsing, not only are people asking for reassessments, even people who aren’t foreclosed yet are in default on their current taxes. Bubble Markets Inventory is showing some blocks in expensive developments where multiple people haven’t paid their property taxes; most of these are underwater McMansions. This Week In Milpitas suggests we’ll be seeing more of that on a smaller scale closer to home.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
rick sez:Here is a list of houses on sale that are bought in 2004, and they are already underwater with 2004 prices.
But Rick, the place in Menlo Park is on the East Palo Alto side! That’s not RBA! Everywhere that’s dropping in price is by definition not RBA!
It’s just that the RBA seems to get smaller every day.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Thanks, madhaus.
I think my earlier post was wrong in that there is not a direct line drawn in the article between the charitable giving deduction & actual loss of public school income.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Gee madhaus, have you even visited the link?
There is only one house from Menlo Park.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Yes, rick, I did indeed visit the link. I just took it for granted that South City, Colma, and Frosty City are not part of the RBA, so when they drop to 2004 prices, that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, we are told that the RBA is special and prices never go down. And if you close your eyes, tap your heels three times, and repeat “There’s no place like RBA,” then watch your equity skyrocket as you water your own lawn!
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
OK, rick, this time I read page 2 of the listings, which includes a collapsing price in Atherton on a street of multimillion dollar places, and a mention of an $11 million dollar foreclosure. All I can say is wouldn’t it be a great idea for me to take all that equity in my Sunnyvale shack, and hock myself in debt up to my eyeballs so I can move to Palo Alto?
And the answer is: Of course not. As much as I enjoy watering my own lawn, at least this way I actually own most all of my own lawn. Some other people’s lawns appear to be in FEMA Zone A even at an elevation of 600 feet.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
>>because this property is also within the FEMA Flood map A zone, in danger of more than 1 foot of flooding.
Is this a new discovery for you? Large parts of Menlo Park and Palo Alto are also in the flood zone. I suppose people should move out of there too. What about earthquakes? Have you checked whether your property is in an earthquake zone or not?
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
> Yes, rick, I did indeed visit the link. I just took it for granted that South City, Colma, and Frosty City are not part of the RBA,
Madhaus, Foster City ( and Redwood Shores) should be pretty much in RBA. Check out their prices, and rents. Rents in Foster city are higher than that in Palo Alto.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Hey I am not saying go buy them, just check it out. I think this site can provide a lot of material for burbed readers, that’s all. Burb mostly covers redwoord city and east palo alto, those are dumps, I’d like more about Belmont, Foster City, places readers will be considered buying.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Remember Milpenis == South Fremont.
Why not park that way, it’s not like anyone WALKS on this sidewalks….
Beautiful Snout House architecture, only cars live here, keep moving, humans!
I lived in a SINGLE WIDE and parking ruled. Had space for a car AND for my motorcycles, it was great. And room for a garden etc.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
ex-svl, of course you lived in a single-wide with parking. Your parking was where the second add-on unit would go.
rick, I agree with you. East Redwood City week and South Fremont week are not the RBA.
sg, sorry but Frosty City and Deadwood Sores are not RBA. My map says so. Thanks for reminding me it’s time to update with the new DQ March data.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
>>Madhaus, Foster City ( and Redwood Shores) should be pretty much in RBA. Check out their prices, and rents. Rents in Foster city are higher than that in Palo Alto.
I’d agree with sg on this one. Madhaus is wrong, as usual.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
> sg, sorry but Frosty City and Deadwood Sores are not RBA. My map says so.
I will be more than happy if this is indeed true. Alas, they are still in RBA according my estimates.
> 40.
Thanks for reminding me it’s time to update with the new DQ March data.
Will look forward to it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Foster City is not the RBA? Huh? Ok it is built on landfill, but it is a pretty nice city and its home prices rival Cupertino. I would definitely trade most of San Francisco for it, if the schools are as good then I will definitely put it on top of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. I used to work up there and love it the most among the cities there (of there I am talking about resident for the average white collar family).
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Meet the new map, same place as the old map…
I’ve heard terrible things about most schools in San Mateo, evidently FC has some of the few decent ones. I like how the place looks, but I’m talking how the prices are doing as far as RBAhood.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Madhaus,
Face it. You don’t know real estate beyond 94087.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Madhaus,
Think about it.
Even burbed does NOT have any entry about these two places (”Frosty City and Deadwood Sores”) :).
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
LOL, I just realized there’s a huge discussion here about my site. Thanks for visiting guys. I enjoy finding the million dollar homes going under water.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
It appears my map of “teh RBA” did not update in the large version. Here it is. My apologies and I hope you like this new one.