Rent: $4200/month. Sale Price: $1.6m. El Cerrito
NEW TUSCAN VILLA WITH BAY VIEWS FOR LEASE
601 Bonnie Dr., El Cerrito, CA
New Tuscan style villa overlooking the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay
4BR/4BA Single Family House
offered at $1,596,880
Year Built 2007
Sq Footage 3,860
Bedrooms 4
Bathrooms 4 full, 0 partial
Floors 2
Parking 2 Car garage
Lot Size 5,500 sqft
HOA/Maint $0 per monthDESCRIPTION
Overlooking the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay, this new, Mediterranean masterpiece was build without compromise, reflecting only the best melding design and décor to excite the senses. Featuring magnificent living and dining areas with exquisite detailing, sky-high ceilings, tiled terraces, the finest quality materials & craftsmanship and every luxury amenity one would expect in a world class residence. Almost 3900 sqft. with four plus bedrooms four full bath this residence is offered to those who appreciate the very Best!
Normally Burbed doesn’t feature much in the East Bay, as this is a blog that focuses on the Real Bay Area. In fact, I had to double check on a map where El Cerrito is. But nonetheless, what Burbed reader Aaron had to say caught my attention:
Hi Burbed,
Thanks so much for what you do.
I am an East Bay renter looking to buy when sanity returns. I always peruse the rentals and for sale listings in Albany/El Cerrito, to see if I can do better than what I rent now.
Found this gem today in a nice part of El Cerrito:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/736177961.html
Rent: $4200/month. Sale Price: $1.6m. Isn’t that awesome? Recently reduced from $1.8m!
It gets better – the comments on zillow indicate friction between these folks who built up this house and the 2 lots adjacent and their neighbors, and some suggestions of shoddy construction. Also has some of the sales history, etc.
http://www.zillow.com/HomeQnA.htm?zpid=68032792
I can’t afford $4200/month in rent, but if I could, this a steal – you can live in this place (which does seem awfully nice, and I love the neighborhood) for like 1/4 of what it costs to own it. Maybe more. Figure $1800/month in property taxes alone! Then insure this puppy!
-Aaron
Well Aaron, there are some downsides to renting this – among other things, you wouldn’t be able to modify it, or paint the walls, or even water the lawn. Where is the pride of homeownership?
Frankly, I can’t make too many snarky remarks about this because I don’t know diddly about El Cerrito. Can someone fill me in on what’s there? What the scoop is? Should it be a candidate for the Real Bay Area?
Help me out! (And thanks Aaron!)
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hey Burbed, let me fill you in since I lived in El cerrito for 4 years before going to college. (My parents still lived there). El Cerrito has a small strip mall and a BART station. The hills area is pretty nice and has views of the bay. The school district is so-so. Actually El Cerrito High gets a lot of spillover kids from Richmond so it’s really overcrowded. It’s really not that special, but it’s a decent neighborhood I guess. Rents are fairly low, and there are a lot of old people. I mean, several of our neighbors are 90+. One of them died recently, though. Anyway, I could ramble on but I don’t think it’s necessary. Basically El Cerrito is another small burb.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Some parts of the East Bay are RBA quality. Those include Piedmont, Clayton, Diablo, and the so-called “Lamorinda” area (Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda). El Cerrito’s main perk is that you have a good view of the Tiburon mansions in Marin County.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Black Hawk and to some degree, Danville.
Those people who call BA “sh**” need to get out more. BA is special for good reasons.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
El Cerrito is basically Berkeley spillover too, for people who can’t afford to live closer in. It reminds me of San Carlos: plenty of more interesting places nearby, but at least you’re not in East Palo Alto/Richmond.
The comments on Zillow are great, do stop by.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
san carlos isn’t cheap
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
san carlos isn’t cheap
I know it isn’t cheap, but it isn’t particularly distinctive, either. Not high end (Berkeley/Palo Alto), not high-crime either. It’s sort of middling, like El Cerrito. That whole north of Berkeley area (El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Richmond, Point Richmond, etc) is less expensive than the Peninsula or Silicon Valley.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Lets see, you have Richmond to the west, and Oakland to the south. That’s not enough to turn you off?
There’s nothing “special” about El Cerrito. Albany is a nice area with great schools, Berkeley has UC Berkeley. They command high housing prices for an inexplainable reason
The question is actually being posed if this should be in the Real Bay Area? Really?
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Heck no. It sure isn’t on the Real Bay Area Map.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:50 am
Think about the tax savings you get, oh it will be more than $2000 a month.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Brian,
No no, I would never suggest El Cerrito is in the RBA. Piedmont, selected neighborhoods in Berkeley and the Oakland Hills, but not El Cerrito.
I live in “the EC”, and most of the comments above are right on – it’s not bad, but it’s nothing special like RBA cities – it’s a burb.
I would say the parts of it next to Albany have improved a nice notch over the last 10 years in terms of walkability to good shops and restaurants.
We also got a cool movie theatre called the Cerrito Speakeasy, where you can have Beer and food brought to you in your comfy couch-like seat in the auditorium, before the movie starts.
And being close to a BART station means a hell of a lot to me personally.
But it doesn’t have that awesomeness that RBA zips have. And about 3/4 of it is crap – all along the richmond border, and under I-80 and 580 – those sections just suck.
I just loved the price-to-rent ratio data given to us by the owners for this listing, because they advertised it as a rental and a sale simultaneously in one craigslist ad! It’s like 300x!
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
The other reason this is clearly not in the RBA is the price per square is foot is a pitiful $414/sqft. There’s not way it is special enough.
RBA minimum is like $600. Or maybe it’s $800. What do you guys think the minimum should be for RBA status?
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
Aaron, that all depends on which cities you want to kick out of the RBA. I post those Mercury News/Dataquick charts every week and they have a dollar per square foot listing. But some of the more expensive places don’t have enough sales to make the charts even though we know they belong.
Here’s who qualifies at $800 per sf:
Community Zip Code Price % Chg* $/SqFt
Atherton 94027 $2,400,000 -14.3% $892
Los Altos 94022 $1,700,000 3.0% $894
Los Altos 94024 $1,723,000 8.0% $835 both zips qualify, congrats Los Altos!
Palo Alto 94301 $1,075,000 -18.9% $1,039 I always said that when the rest of the RBA is gone, it will be a block here that’s still in it
Yup, that’s it.
At the $700 per square foot level we add in:
Los Gatos 95030 $1,554,500 10.6% $710 Other 2 zips need not apply
Portola Valley 94028 n/a n/a $719 I always thought of Portola Valley as pretty pricey. Looks like they’re just giving them away.
Palo Alto 94306 $1,167,500 -5.8% $741 ’06, the other white meat
Still a pretty short list, so let’s lower the bar to $600 per square foot:
Burlingame 94010 $1,700,500 3.3% $692
Cupertino 95014 $1,162,500 15.1% $659
Los Gatos 95032 $1,170,000 12.1% $632 The middle zip, as ’33 comes in at a paltry $441/sf
Millbrae 94030 $995,000 55.5% $630
Mountain View 94040 $889,000 -10.2% $611 The only one of 3 zips to qualify
Redwood City 94061 $755,250 -13.7% $626 WTF?!!!! This isn’t the Emerald Lake Hills zip (which doesn’t make it at $599/sf)
San Mateo 94402 $810,000 -19.0% $618 West of El Camino to 35, ’03 to the south and not as far west has higher median but lower $/sf
Saratoga 95070 $1,506,500 -7.7% $654
That’s looking about right. If we go down to $500 a square foot, here’s the riffraff wannabees:
Total resale houses in San Mateo $783,250 -10.2% $534 Sorry Santa Clara county, you come in at $438
Belmont 94002 $980,500 11.2% $586
Half Moon Bay 94019 $755,000 -19.3% $514 nah, any place famous for pumpkins cannot be RBA
Menlo Park 94025 $878,500 -13.2% $542 Menlo Park is all one zip, so the very high-end places adjoining Stanford are pulled down by the east of 101 section that’s essentially East Palo Alto del Norte
Mountain View 94041 $847,500 -17.2% $524
Mountain View 94043 $630,000 -8.7% $515 Oh gawd, do we have to let BOTH of them in just because of teh Google?
Redwood City 94062 $1,132,500 -7.9% $599 So close, and yet no cigar for Emerald Lake Hills (280/Flea St area)
Redwood City 94065 $838,000 -5.3% $529 And here’s the diff between Emerald Lake and Redwood Shores: $70/sf
San Carlos 94070 $900,000 -3.3% $597 Another heartbreaker for El Cerrito del Sur
San Mateo 94403 $885,000 10.6% $564 SW area but doesn’t reach 280/hills.
San Jose 95120 $1,063,500 1.3% $500 Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Do you remember WG trying to convince everyone that Almaden was RBA? But ’25 didn’t make it at all, at $485/sf
San Jose 95129 $834,750 -13.9% $547 Those Cupertino schools again!
San Jose 95130 $750,000 -1.1% $514 This is practically Campbell, WTF are they doing here?
Sunnyvale 94087 $950,000 -7.3% $585 Okay, I hereby declare the floor is $580/sf!
And, the oft-mentioned but clearly failing to make the RBA, at $400/sf:
Campbell 95008 $655,000 -13.8% $441
Los Gatos 95033 $528,000 -45.5% $441
San Jose 95118 $615,000 -11.5% $438 Who?
San Jose 95124 $688,000 -9.7% $458
San Jose 95125 $707,500 -9.3% $485
San Jose 95126 $705,500 16.0% $484
San Jose 95128 $540,000 -19.0% $474
San Jose 95134 $342,500 -40.8% $441 Eh?
San Martin 95046 $912,500 11.3% $466 Too far away to qualify. Gas is $4.60 a gallon, you can’t afford to live here anymore.
Santa Clara 95050 $555,000 -18.2% $498 Wait a minute, wait a minute…
Santa Clara 95051 $632,500 3.9% $482 Hold on, doesn’t THIS zip have CUSD? WTF?
Santa Clara 95054 $685,000 -13.9% $407 Where the heck…?
Sunnyvale 94085 $530,250 -10.9% $437 Oh, sure, let ANYONE in
Sunnyvale 94086 $714,500 -2.8% $469 Even if they’re north of El Camino
Sunnyvale 94089 $650,000 1.7% $400 Aha-ha-ha-ha-hah! This scuzzy part still scrabbling on by its filthy claws!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
I believe some of El Cerrito goes to Albany schools which are exceptional. Albany is a great town to buy real estate (if you can get it). I consider all of these to be berkeley burbs.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
madhaus, you are posting the next to last dataquick numbers there. The last DQ numbers available had willow glen 95125 at $508/sq ft. Yours is from the time before.
But anyway here is what is interesting- I bought my next to most recent house in WG in December 2006 at $455 per square foot- place was remodeled, outstanding street (I would say it is in the top 20% of WG streets), non busy street, etc. IOW prime area. The one negative with this house- and I am sure why it didn’t sell, is the 2 adjoining neighbors are not the best. Right in the immediate neighbors to this particular house have the elderly folks who haven’t repaired their houses in 30 years- a typical issue with these old neighborhoods. But I ignore that- that kind of thing is only temporary… I look at overall street and yard etc when buying a house. So I bought this place in Dec 06 for about 100K less than they originally wanted, and 100K less than a house on the same street that was smaller sold for 6 mos prior. Then, in July 2007 one almost directly across the street with 1650sq ft sold for 90K more than mine at 1780 sq ft. This one across the street is also close to the non updated houses so that was significant.
So moral of the story- you can get deals in almost any climate. I would bet that my WG house is definitely worth less than the absolute peak in prices here, but is it worth less than I paid? I doubt it.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
madhaus – since $/sqf compares $ for land + house with sqf of the house only, your numbers are skewed towards cities with larger lots. If RBA is defined as ‘that which never goes down in price’ then $/sqf is meaningless. But if RBA is defined as ‘that expensive zone’ we’re talking about a different distribution altogether.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
You left out San Francisco. Why? 94115 sells for $1000/sf routinely.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I wrote a song about this, it goes something like…
el cerrito…
el cerrito…
everyone wants to live in el cerrito…
if you can’t live in berkeley…
and you can’t live in frisco…
then you have to settle for el cerrito…
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Residents of El Cerrito are not eligible to go to Albany schools. (Different city, different county)
However, excellent private schools do exist within the city, Prospect-Sierra (K-12) being among the most notable.
Its a fine little town located just north of Berkeley and melded in with Kensington (The latter is unincorporated and seriously “Burb Quality”.)
That being said, 601 Bonnie has some serious drawbacks. And some pluses.
Its a newish (built 2004-2007) Fremont-style house located in a neighborhood of older wood-sheathed homes.
It really doesn’t fit-in but it could be painted nicely with murals of the old oak and bay trees which it replaced.Check with the art store “Electix” nearby for a list of talented artists. Other creative uses for the house have been suggested by locals. (None of the aformentioned schemes are truly illegal in this closely-knit R-1 neighborhood where most other folks play by the rules.)
601 Bonnie has four bedrooms which are located well apart for roommates…but the bathrooms are across the family room. (Who WAS that masked man???)
The two “patios” upper and lower, are immediately adjacent to the next door neighbors. But then…so is the whole house as its small lot (5,500 square feet) has been pushed to within five feet of the lot line.
The kitchen has a bay window and a direct view into the neighbor’s bedroom. (They AIN’T supermodels so don’t even go there!)You can also see the highschool from the kitchen, patio and living room. El Cerrito has a fine football team. And field lights.
There is a lawn…but you won’t need a power mower for it, hand shears will do just fine.
A concrete sewer easement/manhole cover runs along the back lot line. (This may be the “dog run” described in promotional materials)The back fence actually belongs to the neighboring yard and is on their property. Gardening bills should be minimal.
I could continue…but you get the drift…
Interesting hill neighborhood…packed with UC/SF State professors, Nobel prize winners, doctors and lawyers. They like living in these hills and being close to BART.
But they don’t like your house as it is blocking their views and preventing their privacy.They fought its construction tooth and nail. They definitely don’t want to hear your parties/iPods/electric razors or hair drier. And given the acoustics…well…
Sorry to burst your bubble. El Cerrito hills yes. 601 Bonnie, well “check it out” as we say in the factcheckin’ biz. I’d put a payment on a Leer jet first.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
my wife and i are looking to buy in el cerrito … like mrbogue says, when you can’t (afford to) live in Berkeley, you end up in el cerrito. (Actually, we CAN afford to live in Berkeley … as renters, which is what we are doing now.) Like the first poster said, there are a LOT of elderly residents in EC. In fact, I’d say that at least half of the homes that we’ve seen are on the market because the owner/occupant passed away.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
WG, you are correct, those are week-old numbers. Sometimes Dataquick updates their link, sometimes they don’t. It’s easier to copy their tables than the way they format them in the Mercury News. But since it’s the 4 most recent weeks, 75% of the old numbers still hold.
I didn’t realize my error until I had finished collating it, then…@#*()(&%#&!!!!
I’m sure you got the deal on your previous house because you are an expert in assessing the neighborhoods you specialize in. If you’re up against inexperienced buyers, you will get a better deal every time (such as a bigger house for $100K less). I don’t doubt you are getting good deals as you make them, my only question is whether it ends up being a good deal later. I’m sure if you had bought my house 15 years ago you would have done a better job knowing exactly what to offer, too.
DreamT, that’s a good point, except it doesn’t explain Palo Alto, lots of small lots especially in 94306. It does explain Los Altos (minimum 1/4 acre). Also zips with a higher concentration of condos/townhouses are pulled down because I don’t have data for SFHs only. Which means Mountain View 94040 houses are even more insanely priced than you think.
sonarrat, I didn’t “leave out” San Francisco, the Mercury News doesn’t pay to have them included in their weekly survey. You can get monthly data on those zips in their Chronicle survey. Both available on the Dataquick website.
mrbogue here is my song:
Tune: Operator, by Jim Croce
El Cerrito, will you help me buy a home?
See the number on your med’ian is low to middlin’
It’s lower than Berk’ley
I can’t even afford Alb’ny
Town I thought was dull says my offer’s piddlin’
But isn’t that the way they say it goes
But let’s forget all that
And give me the loan docs if I qualify
So I can go broke just to say it’s mine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow
I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my zip code would convince myself
That it’s almost as Real
But that’s not the way it feels
El Cerrito, well could you help me place this blame
Cause I can’t read the Zestimate that you just gave me
There’s something in my eyes
You know it happens every time
I think about equity I thought would save me
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
WTF happened to my previous post? burbed could you cut everything after the song? I don’t know how everything got in there twice.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Ugh, the song was split into 2 parts, really nasty. Here’s the whole thing.
Tune: Operator, by Jim Croce
El Cerrito, will you help me buy a home?
See the number on your med’ian is low to middlin’
It’s lower than Berk’ley
I can’t even afford Alb’ny
Town I thought was dull says my offer’s piddlin’
But isn’t that the way they say it goes
But let’s forget all that
And give me the loan docs if I qualify
So I can go broke just to say it’s mine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow
I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my zip code would convince myself
That it’s almost as Real
But that’s not the way it feels
El Cerrito, well could you help me place this blame
Cause I can’t read the Zestimate that you just gave me
There’s something in my eyes
You know it happens every time
I think about equity I thought would save me
But isn’t that the way they say it goes
But let’s forget all that
And give me the HELOC if I’m afloat float
So I can go broke just to say it’s mine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow
I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my zip code would convince myself
That it’s almost as Real
But that’s not the way it feels
No, no, no, no, that’s not the way it feels
El Cerrito, let’s forget about this home
There’s nothing there I really want to pay for
No I don’t want to lease
Oh you’ve been so much more than cruel
You can keep my keys
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Wow Factchecker. That’s pretty intense. Please come back often!
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
madhaus – Maybe you can arrange a daily burbedcast with burbed, same as on woot.
As for the SC/CUSD question. Well at a rate or 2 or 3 houses only on the market at any given moment in that area, and the dramatically different activity north of the Pruneridge line, zip-level aggregates will tell you… zip!
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Nicely done, madhaus.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
hats off madhaus, I didn’t know there was an extended 12″ mix.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Renter4, thank you. You’ve have some wonderfully apt comments, so your appreciation is genuinely welcome.
DreamT Thank you too and, um what’s “on woot”? You sure you want to hear me actually perform that? Some real estate bull is going to make noise about this being “old people” music.
Is the Pruneridge line the CUSD/SC break? You probably have the same problem in ’51 that we have in ’87, everything here (almost) north of Fremont is Sunnyvale, not Cupertino, school district (plus a little bit of Santa Clara in the east).
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Thank you, mrbogue. I can use your song as a lead-in if you tell me what tune you had in mind.
Sorry about the previous post, I don’t know how it got cut up like that.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Oh, since we’re talking about songs and stuff. Creedence Clearwater Revival is from El Cerrito. Another random factoid is that I did go to Albany High even though I lived in El cerrito. The way my parents managed that is to rent in Albany for one year so I was already enrolled in Albany schools, and then they bought in El Cerrito, very close to the Albany border (actually the Welcome to El Cerrito sign is in front of our house). So as a continuing student I was allowed to stay in Albany. At that time houses in Albany were already 20% more than El Cerrito. So I think that’s a good strategy for people who want to get into the better school districts. Just rent there, and then buy a house really close by in another county.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
madhaus – on woot.com, check the daily wootcast on the right (“stupid six” today). You never noticed burbed saying “woot” on his daily postings?
There’s very little of 95051 that is in CUSD, even compared to 94087 – it wavers north and south of Pruneridge then abruptly stops before Kiely.
Cannot claim it is a problem in itself, but zip-level statistics don’t begin to give an idea about it. So I wouldn’t call 95051 a CUSD district, it just has a tiny chunk of it in it, and the prices, sales and related trends bear little ressemblance to the rest of the zip. No doubt all zips have this issue on their edges.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Thanks DreamT, I had absolutely no idea that “w00t!” meant anything other than “yippie!” Burbed never links to anything and neither did any other use of the term. I will check it out.
I’d say less than half of ’87 is CUSD as well. The zip is still high because Cherry Chase is the best scoring elementary school in the Sunnyvale school district, so those houses sell for about 10-20% less than CUSD. Between CUSD and Cherry Chase, that easily covers more than half the zip, but I don’t know where to verify the actual numbers.
Here’s a Sunnyvale school district map. The SSD schools in 94087 are:
– Cherry Chase (entirely in 94087), API 941
– Cumberland (2/3 in 94087), API 865
– Ellis (1/3 in 94087) API 822
All 3 of these schools feed to Sunnyvale Middle, API 797.
The Cupertino schools are (all entirely in 94087):
– Nimitz, API 848 (2nd lowest in district)
– Stocklmeier, API 930 (highest enrollment in district)
– West Valley, API 924 (possibly oldest physical plant in district)
All feed to Cupertino Middle, API 901
The Santa Clara district schools in Sunnyvale:
– Laurelwood, API 887
– Peterson Middle, 786
I don’t know how much your SC/CU schools diverge. Looks like the hit comes more in middle school than elementary for both Sunnyvale and Santa Clara districts, Cupertino keeps their numbers up by adding Montclaire (Los Altos city limits, API 969) kids into Cup Middle. Cherry Chase scores better than all 3 Sunnyvale city elementaries in CUSD.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
madhaus – SC/CUSD is Eisenhower elementary (API 894) and Hyde middle (API 829). I agree with your analysis for the middle school hit. At the same time, these numbers improve pretty much every year (Eisenhower: 2001=835, 2002=839, 2003=863, 2004=874, 2005=885, 2006=884, 2007=894) so when purchasing in CUSD, current API doesn’t tell the whole story.
Also there’s a healthy middle ground to hit between the public-school attitude of some SJ east-side schools (where it’s cooler to fail even if you can succeed) and the elitist attitude of some Cupertino schools (where you’re not expecteed to succeed if you don’t look Asian).
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
DreamT, I think I’ve got that middle ground with middle level Cup schools. I hope. My older kid commented on the Mexican kids who often don’t seem interested in getting decent grades, but that there’s not that many of them compared to all the whites, Asians, and Indians, the latter two tending to go for good grades, along with 2/3 of the whites.
The school with the 1000 API, Faria, is almost entirely Asian (95%, includes Indian subcontinent).
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
One interesting thing is that there’s some part of Cupertino that is actually cheaper than Sunnyvale/Santa Clara with CUSD. For example:
http://www.movoto.com/real-estate/homes-for-sale/CA/Cupertino/18816-Pendergast-Ave-100_814604.htm
In that case wouldn’t it better to just live in the real Cupertino?
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
RE – Rancho Riconada is now back to being in the ‘real Cupertino’? In any case I am convinced both Sunnyvale CUSD and Santa Clara CUSD are better deals than the neighboring Cupertino.
* Better be in one of the best neighborhoods of a city than in its worst
* Paying a premium only to have a different zip? No thanks
* 3/1 and 5304sqf is comparatively smaller
* Greatest ROI potential based on expected improvement in city planning, school scores and current valuations? Cupertino is already on the frothy side, so less attractive.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Wow, look at that. Not only is it uglier than a box of triscuits, it’s got the one school in the district whose API scores went down last year: Sedgewick! Plus an added bonus, worst middle school in the district!
You’re not proposing that Rancho Rinkydinky is the “real Cupertino,” are you?
RE, did you notice when this house last sold? 1993! For $195K. Around that time I bought my house for over $300K. Hmmm… you think even then people figured out this part of Cupertino wasn’t that Special?
That place is even smaller than my shack, but one good thing! The lot size is just like those in Palo Alto! Undersized! A whopping 5300 sf! And if you buy this place you will get the pleasure of watering your own lawn, because if you don’t, it’s fixin’ to die soon.
burbed, you should feature that house. It put the Ech! back in Eichler.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
DreamT, great minds think alike, or at least weakness seldom differs.
You know, you can lead a donkey to water, but you can’t make him burro.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
madhaus – you’ll have to grant that RealEstater’s posts are uncannily Pavlovian. He remains unmatched at triggering reactions.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:44 pm
…I can use your song as a lead-in if you tell me what tune you had in mind…
hehehe Madhaus, I was actually using this tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk
alittle Southern Californian history right there…
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
(Re: Tuscany in El Cerrito.) And when John Fogerty (Creedence) started raking in the dough, he bought a house in Kensington…on Sunset Drive, just up the hill from El Cerrito.
Kensington kids *do* go to El Cerrito High School. Unless, of course, their parents put them in Head-Royce or send them back East to Phillips-Exeter.
Check out Kensington. Its truly Burbed quality…in a artsy/f.rtsy sort of way.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I see some bad loans recasting
I see double monthly pain
I see unemployment lasting
I see bad times today
Don’t buy a house for years
Unless you wanna be in arrears
There’s a bad loan gonna rise
Heh heh. I can definitely play that one.
July 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am
>>you’ll have to grant that RealEstater’s posts are uncannily Pavlovian. He remains unmatched at triggering reactions.
You guys are over-reacting. Since you guys take so much pride in your Cupertino branded schools, I honestly didn’t know that there’s a part of Cupertino that doesn’t have good schools for itself.
July 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
You guys are over-reacting. Since you guys take so much pride in your Cupertino branded schools, I honestly didn’t know that there’s a part of Cupertino that doesn’t have good schools for itself.
What are you talking about? I never mention anything about the school district!
February 11th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Hi,
I live in EC – just bought an awesome property there. I smile everytime I pass (BART) by the tiny little (& old) houses in Albany… I enjoy my almost 2k sqft (4 bd/ 2 bath) for an affordable price.
For the money I saved I could afford a private school – but why? Madera Elementary (9 out of 10) is good enough.
Sometimes it helps to read your kids a book or just spend some time with them – awake the curiosity in them. Then they ‘survive’ a mid-level school and still get their PhD from a decent University.