$290,000 for a house that’s in Silicon Valley and not in East Palo Alto!
1547 FLORIDA Ave San Jose, CA 95122
Price: $290,000
Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Sq. Ft.: 960
$/Sq. Ft.: $302
Lot Size: 5,777 Sq. Ft.
Age (Years): 49
Year Built: 1959
Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Ranch
Stories: 1 Story
View(s): Neighborhood
Neighborhood: Alum Rock
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80779155
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 166 days
Unsold in 90+ days
Beautiful, remodeled home, tile kitchen floors and counters, large covered patio, garage converted to living area w/ two bedrooms.
Wow. Just wow.
Another day, another house that proves that real estate prices have absolutely hit the bottom here. THE BOTTOM.
Now, when Burbed reader Michele submitted this house, she thought that perhaps Fred Flintstone
or Barney Rubble lived in it. (Definitely not the Pope - he lives in Willow Glen)
Actually, the fact is that this house pays homage to Silicon Valley’s defense industry past. Yep, that’s right - this house is actually a test site for the new HouseCamo(flage) system. By blending in with its surroundings, this house simply disappears from terrorists and rapists - who would might otherwise try to attack and steal your instant equity from you. And you certainly wouldn’t want that to happen!
Better act soon - at this price, holy cow it’s going to disappear fast.
I hear there’s already a potential buyer lined up:
August 5th, 2008 at 6:25 am
The guy pictured is not available as he is on guard busy chasing Willies at his new East Palo Alto home…
August 5th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Did I miss somethin’ here? I thought the rock-bottom was 400k… not 290k. But heck- you could probably buy this, slap some paint on it, and rent it for $6,000 a month. I just know there’s loads of facebook employees dying to rent it right this minute!
Anyone notice it is located in “Alum rock”? yuck yuck!And one more bonus: NO GRASS TO MOW, not to mention totally fire proof!
August 5th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Shouldn’t the neighborhood be “Bedrock”? Perhaps not—Fred Flinstone’s car didn’t have doors, let alone windows (see car door at far right).
August 5th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Ah, Story & King, where it’s a fiesta every day. I was wondering what would happen to this neighborhood when the subprime market disintegrated.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Damn, this is the longest list of price change I have ever seen.
550 to 290. That’s quite a reality check for a bay area homeowner.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Good thing that’s not an RBA home owner!
August 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Sorry Pralay - Even *I* don’t think that this house proves a thing.
My guess - the faux rockface acts as bulletproofing.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
“550 to 290. That’s quite a reality check for a bay area homeowner.”
What was the owner thinking when the value hit $550K? Was he like oh i should wait till it hit $600K? Was the owner thinking like i can’t believe this shithole of mine valued over $550K?
August 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Shithole? SHITHOLE?!?! You’re being a little harsh sir!
Turd is the wurd.
but but, no - wait maybe not! I think an director level or an executive type person would buy this house and be quite happy with it. Just because it seems overpriced to everyone here doesn’t mean that it actually is. You know what they say?! You just think its crap because its out of reach for you!
On another note, I love the open car door. The agent got out. RAN TO TAKE A PIC and RAN BACK INSIDE, PEELING OUT before the bullets started a-flying.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Burbed,
One of my comments in the previous thread is in moderation here for a while.
Is there any reason for it?
thanks
August 5th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Because the spam filtering is a pain in the butt to manage? I’ll go investigate.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Oh I see why, too many links. Watch out folks… anything after 3 may get you nailed by automation.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am
“Feb 19, 2008 $550,000
Mar 15, 2008 $499,000
Mar 23, 2008 $399,000
May 01, 2008 $349,000
May 07, 2008 $325,000
May 23, 2008 $299,000
May 29, 2008 $290,000″
This gives me quite a hard on.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am
WG has already bought it.
Under 400k, a reasonable lot, and move in condition! Cash flow positive day one.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Pralay,
The owner simply give it a low listing price to attract multiple offers, by the time he really accepts one you will find out it is 450k, and WG would’ve been outbid.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am
nope I don’t play ‘dat 95122. I might consider a 95127 (also alum rock, the hills area) if it is this price on a hilly lot. But even thats a stretch. Before this downturn I stuck with WG, Campbell, Rose Garden and Cambrian. Those are areas that are reasonably priced but still nice enough to rent and appreciate. I have recently opened up my search to Downtown San Jose areas, but still not sure on east side where this is.
The payments on this if you had a mortgage are probably around $1500/mo. At that point its all about what you can rent a cheap property like this for. These high rents make a lot more worthwhile.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I like East San Jose, but only zip code 95132 (north of Berryessa, around Piedmont Road).
August 5th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I suspect the Mexicans in this area has all gone home.
There are quite a few houses in the neighbor that is the same range, this is actually just medium priced.
One thing puzzled me is that the houses sold recently have much higher prices.
$1500 seems reasonable, wonder why no investor has picked up this cash flow positive gem yet. Maybe they afraid that they would be shot by the tenant? This area is better when it is away from Story and gets closer to Tully.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
A little glimpse into the future of the RBA —
LA foreclosures spread to Malibu, Santa Monica
The number of newly scheduled auctions of foreclosed properties in Los Angeles County rose 249 percent to 5,982 from July 2007, PropertyShark.com said in a report. One in every 526 Los Angeles homes was scheduled for a first-time foreclosure auction in July, while in New York, only one in 10,000 homes was scheduled for auction.
Los Angeles saw foreclosure activity start to spread to wealthier areas, such as Malibu, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach, according to the report.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0135482420080804?sp=true
August 5th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
rick - closer to Tully is heavily Vietnamese. Some of the strip malls around there are spooky; they look like gang hangouts.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Check out the comparable properties for sale, including a 3/2 on the same street, slightly bigger for (are you ready?) $287,550.
Not cheap enuff fer ya? ‘kay, here’s the identical size and composition: $275,000.
One thing puzzled me is that the houses sold recently have much higher prices.
So who called the bottom on this market? Because it’s clearly got more to go if the recent sales are higher.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Looks like plenty of cheap opportunities for Pralay to water the lawn…err, I mean concrete.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
normadic,
Story/King is the worst area, once you drive around you will know. There is a huge Vietnamese center down Story, but the area is mixed with Vietnamese and Mexicans. In Tully there is actually a fairly large shopping mall, and it is very popular, there was always a large line outside Todai.
Actually I feel the worst area in San Jose is downtown between 13th-1st/South of 880-North of 280. I feel very unsafe driving by during the day, seeing gang like people hanging outside. Story/Tully area is not that bad, we often go get some cheap food there.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Actually I feel the worst area in San Jose is downtown between 13th-1st/South of 880-North of 280. I feel very unsafe driving by during the day, seeing gang like people hanging outside.
——
Come on Rick. You pretty much covered whole SJ downtown. It’s downtown. There will be people hanging out there and some will look like gang-members. If people did not hang out, it would not be downtown.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
The house looks like it’s very safe. The stone work must be bullet proof.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
“My guess - the faux rockface acts as bulletproofing.”
Hey, don’t be so hard on east SJ. I keep my airplane at RHV, and know of only one instance when an airplane has been shot. But I still don’t go out there on New Year’s Eve.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
the problem with cash flow in this area historically is the quality of tenants. The truth is that many east side properties had almost **no** value all through the 90s- a lot of Alum Rock properties were valued at 80K, for example. Only in the Real Estate bubble did these things get bid up to 400-500K. Actually I am surprised this one had a value of 162K in 1997, thats pretty high. A lot of them were worth less, then.
At the same time, over time, even bad areas gentrify in the bay area. As was mentioned here once Sunnyvale High school was practically a hood. Just because something is east side does not mean it is not a good investment, you need to look at the area and evaluate its potential to turn around. But anyway, unless you think this place is in one of those areas that has potential to improve, it isn’t a good investment even at cash flow positive rent. You are going to have headaches with a lot of tenants, it just isn’t worth it.
Story and Alum Rock ave have a foothills area that could improve over time also. Alum Rock above Fleming is actually pretty nice.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
rick, that shopping mall on Tully is Eastridge mall. It was built in the 70s to great fanfare and was THE mall in the peninsula/south bay when it initially opened, I think around 1972. Many jr high schoolers from all the way up the peninsula spent the ENTIRE DAY taking the BUS to eastridge mall in the 70s just because it was so huge and new.
The developers built eastridge not to cater to the east san jose clientele (which was bad then too)- but because the perception was that east san jose was the ONLY undeveloped land left in the bay area. There lies the error in trying to build into an “emerging” destination. My guess is many properties were bought around the emerging eastridge at the time.
As time passed a few things happened- 1)indoor huge malls became passe, 2)east san jose never really improved, etc and the landlords had a huge mall on their hands to lease without the customer base to support it.
That eastridge mall would never have been built today. The irony is that the land it is built on also doesn’t have much value as buildable for housing either, which is why it is still a mall. Many other dead malls on hte peninsula like fashion island in San Mateo were plowed under to build other things. But eastridge just sits there like a white elephant.
the original eastridge center
http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2005/10/eastridge-center.html
August 5th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
WG,
Why they are of no value? As long as there is rental income there should be value right? I don’t see this area change a bit in recent years.
I think area with no value means that normal investors don’t find it worthwhile even though there is income.
Pralay,
You are right, I often overreacted to the punks in downtown area, maybe they are even students from SJSU. But I do think that area is a crime rotten neighborhood. Even though I lived in Berkeley student neighborhood before (and there are a lot of weird dudes out there), I still cannot distinguish student from street punks.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
rick, what I mean to say is, if you invest in something, commit your time and resources and money (there is always some kind of down payment involved and closing costs to buying RE)- you are expecting that your asset will appreciate, usually. With these, even though you might be cash flow positive by about $100/mo, the possibility of making money on this is much less certain than another part of San Jose. I’m all for buying cheap property- thats my game after all, but buying in 95122 is pretty uncertain. You might make money but just as easily you could lose or break even
August 5th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
WG,
Actually I am more concerned with getting shot or deal with tenant problems. I am not sure whether you read my comment about being a landlord in Oakland or Detroit. Cash flow positive means nothing when you might end up dead.
I agree with you on this, but I think the uncertainly has more to do about the crime factor and the toughness of the neighborhood.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Ross, OMG when you said something about a plane at Reid-Hillview getting shot, I thought “I know someone at RHV who that happened to,” and it’s the SAME GUY! Did you know he died in a plane crash last year? I went to his memorial service.
The only reason I have any knowledge of the Tully/Quimby/Eastridge area is because I knew that dude. He lived in the hills high above all that but you had to drive past it to get there.
So who wants to live in a ‘hood where the way to celebrate New Years Eve is to fire guns into the sky instead of something a little saner such as opening the bubbly or party poppers?
August 5th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
“So who wants to live in a ‘hood where the way to celebrate New Years Eve is to fire guns into the sky instead of something a little saner such as opening the bubbly or party poppers?”
A better question would be who DOESN’T!? BA weather isn’t exclusive to the RBA, ya know! That is, after all, why this place is so special….
August 5th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
anon? um. what does weather have to do with shooting guns in the air?
just wonderin’
August 7th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Well, the guns was a quote from Madhaus, so ask her. My comment was simply to REMIND everyone that its special here. Who cares if you’re surrounded by guns, smog, traffic, entitled yuppies and such? It is the BAY AREA.
I think that people may forget how special the bay area really is. In fact, it seems like a lot of people are forgetting when a wonderful home like this is listed for only a quarter million dollars.