Affordable fixer-upper in Palo Alto - now you can stop crying at night
1111 Alma St, Palo Alto 94301 (Professorville)
$895,000
* Status: Active
* Bedroom: 2
* Bathroom: 1
* Year Built: 1923
* Lot Size: 5600
* Square Footage: 936
* List Date: 5/6/2008
* Garage Spaces: 1A fixer-upper in a great, Downtown location of Palo Alto. The house belongs to one of the best school districts and is listed for a great price.
Unable to afford some of the recent properties featured on Burbed in Palo Alto? Well, when you’re not crying yourself to sleep at night because of how screwed your children are, you really ought to take a look at this listing. With 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, this 936 sqft will fit a fit and healthy family of 4 with no problems. Sure there are no pictures of the interiors, but really - do you need to see the interiors? Do you need to look at Google’s data center before you use it? Do you look at the iPod’s circuits before you buy it? This is freakin’ Palo Alto - there’s no need for that.
With one of the best schools in the entire nation state of California (which is ranked 47th), and situated on a small, slow traffic street like Alma, this house is a sure bet.
Now, for a pet peeve - this listing doesn’t mention anything about overbids. That’s pretty evil. You can 110% be sure that this house will be overbid. Prepare yourself. I’d say this will go for $1 mil easily.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:21 am
“The house belongs to one of the best school districts” I didn’t know school districts owned houses.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Check this out: Sold For: $788,000 (06/01/2006)
It’s off the MLS now, so maybe they gave up and are crying at night.
The house is just one house off of Embarcadero too! What a “central” location.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Well, when you’re not crying yourself to sleep at night because of how screwed your children are, you really ought to take a look at this listing.
How rich. You know, something that really bothers me is the fact that about 98% of all parents I run into bought a house because they “think” that by purchasing a home, they’re buying their children security and in some convoluted way- happiness. The idea of renting a house, though likely a fraction of the cost- is out of the question.
The irony is that in many cases, I’d argue that placing you and your family into such a severe financial strain for a house is actually more damaging.
The notion that you MUST buy a house after having kids automatically is an old-fashioned assumption that it translates into stability.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am
That’s one sweet opportunity. Walk to shopping, Stanford Stadium, or Palo Alto Caltrain (it’s ok to be on the tracks if you have good access to the station). Buy it now, that mortgage won’t look so big when the house is renting for $250,000 a month!
June 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Bob says:
You know, something that really bothers me is the fact that about 98% of all parents I run into bought a house because they “think” that by purchasing a home, they’re buying their children security and in some convoluted way- happiness. The idea of renting a house, though likely a fraction of the cost- is out of the question.
The irony is that in many cases, I’d argue that placing you and your family into such a severe financial strain for a house is actually more damaging.
The notion that you MUST buy a house after having kids automatically is an old-fashioned assumption that it translates into stability.
I’m pleased that someone else “gets it.” This is some of the most cogent commentary on our greediness I have read. My compliments on the keen observations, Bob. This is really what this mess is all about.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I know someone who checked with the City of PA to see if they could turn this place into a medical office, but the City said no - apparently its far too important to preserve this gem on quiet and peaceful Alma as a residence.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Bob,
Your assumption is that everyone who buys a house makes the same salary as you and will be financially strained. That may or may not be the case.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Realestater,
No, I’m not making the assumption based on my salary, which as I’ve mentioned would enable me to purchase a home here if I chose except that homes here are overvalued and prone to a dramatic decline.
In retrospect,my assumption is based on the cold math that me and my Wife make perhaps into the upper 10% of the earning public here. You just about have to make that in order to buy ( at least for now) so if the other 90% make less-some signifigantly less- then I think it is more than safe to say that buying indeed puts a lot of stress on the average BA family.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
why are we talking about salaries? i thought it was all about stock options these days.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I’ve been looking at this property for a while. It’s just simply amazing how if you want anything for under 1 mil in PA, this is about as good as it gets.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
The state of California is ranked 47th for their K-12 schools ? When did they progress to get such a high ranking. Honestly, I don’t think the likes of Mississippi, Louisiana, Washington D.C. and Hawaii are all doing that bad to push up California on the list.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Zillow says it’s worth $1,297,000. I am so there.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Zillow’s full of crap. They even overestimated the value of my parent’s home by a good 100k.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
C’mon Bob - that “zestimate” is as good as cash in the bank! (wink, wink)
June 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Heh heh, even the low end of the Zestimate on this house is $1.219 mil. You couldn’t be saying those guys are wrong, could you? They’ve got teh tubes and everything!
June 10th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I just posted on another thread that as an investor I think this is the “sweet spot” in terms of pricing for appreciation in bay area real estate. 2006 was past the national bubble - except in the bay area if you bought a 800K house in one of the good areas, not just PA but Cupertino, Los Gatos even Willow Glen, an 800K house in 2006 is worth 900K now and sometimes more- depends on the house. There was a trough in 2006 in december- if you bought then you got an even better deal and really made money.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I am in escrow on a bank foreclosure for 420K that has a zestimate of 657K, or a 56% premium on my buy price thanks to Zillow. It will be interesting to see what my buy does to the zestimates in that neighborhood.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
One thing I noticed about Zillow: I appealed my tax assessment and won - resulting in a HUGE drop in my Zillow “value.” Just because I save some money on taxes doesn’t mean my house is worth less than the neighbor’s. (Especially since mine is fully up-to-date and theirs are not.)
June 10th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
WillowGlenner,
Good move. Congratulations! Is this property in Campbell, where you were interested?
June 10th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Nomadic, what did you use to appeal your tax assessment? I would like to appeal mine, but the problem is 2 houses sold closeby for more $ per square feet than my house. Thats because these 2 houses are smaller than mine by a few hundred feet and in those cases, you ALWAYS pay more per square feet. I don’t know how to find “evidence” that my particular house has fallen in value other than median price per sq ft in the zipcode or very close by home sales.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
WillowGlenner,
Your property tax basis will be $420K if that’s what you’re paying.
What do you want to appeal?
June 11th, 2008 at 1:41 am
It’s so funny, I wrote about the “it’s better for the kids” lie people tell me too: http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2008/05/29/are-we-meant-to-be-homeowners/
Additionally, I found out that my rent is actually cheaper than rent prices in 2000:
http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2008/06/10/how-fair-is-my-rent/
So why would anyone buy?
June 11th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Er, I want to appeal the property tax basis for ANOTHER house, not the 420K house. I am a RE investor. I have another house in willow glen that has a property tax basis of 810K which is $455 sq ft- San Jose did lower the tax basis on this house by 30K, but thats not enough. 2 houses closeby just sold for 699K which is also what I think my house is worth, so thats 110K off my current prop tax base. The problem is those houses have less square footage but one is a larger lot than mine, the other on a slightly better street.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:00 am
To appeal my taxes, I was able to find 3-4 homes that sold in the area for a lower $/sf and ignored the others. I included the MLS listings with the descriptions too, so I could point out that a couple were remodeled or had a newly refurbished pool while mine did not. (The house wasn’t remodeled yet when I did the appeal…) I did a little calculation for each comparable like you see on an appraisal. Adding some amount for a better lot or for remodeling, subtracting if necessary too.
I got the 9.7% reduction I requested in 2006. And then when the city-wide reductions came through in 2007, it went down some more. My latest assessment was unchanged. The funny thing is, I wouldn’t have bothered appealing if they had left my assessment flat from 2005 to 2006, but the increase ticked me off. I bought the place pretty near the peak in 2005 so if you’ve owned your house for awhile, prop. 13 will make it tough for you to argue for an even lower valuation.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:47 am
Down to $850,000.
Still a $62,000 appreciation in 2 years, if they get asking.