11 Responses to “More signs the bottom of the real estate market has been reached”

1. bob Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 7:49 am

   What is that? A hotel?Is it being sold as a residence or a commercial building?

2. sonarrat Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 8:29 am

   It’s a mansion on Billionaire’s Row. $3000 a square foot is not unusual on this street.

3. Area 51 Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

   I used to jog by that house all the time when I lived in SF. No question it was a real mansion (not 2×4 Mc Mansion) but was a little run down at the time. I always wondered what it looke dlike inside. Very cool.

4. madhaus Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

   Did you notice you grabbed that frame when the lower left was starting to fade into an interior shot of the reception hall? Interesting weird transparent effect there. I guess for 48 mil you can get translucent structural walls.

5. Herve Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 9:24 pm

   I like the shot in the garage: a Rolls-Royce and an old VW Beetle.

6. RealEstater Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 1:40 am

   Guys,

   Here are some explanations about the useless data Madhaus extracts from the Mercury News each month:

   http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/Real_estate_sales_in_palo_alto_in_-33376–

   Some notable quotes:

   “the numbers posted in the Mercury News are useless, as are most of the articles they write based on these numbers. It’s not because the numbers themselves are false, but with faulty interpretation.”

   “I think it may have been Mark Twain that said “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.”
   The fact is that statistics cannot really lie, but the data becomes so convoluted and confusing that it’s difficult to arrive at a rational conclusion.”

7. RealEstater Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 1:40 am

   …I mean each week

8. Pralay Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 8:08 am

   Here are some explanations about the useless data Madhaus extracts from the Mercury News each month:

   http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/Real_estate_sales_in_palo_alto_in_-33376–

   Some notable quotes:
   ——-

   Ha ha! RealEstater forgot mention that the guy said that is a “Real Estate Pro” (Ronald Marcos). Atleast he did not introduced himself is an average hitech guy.

9. Real Estater Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 10:25 am

   Madhaus,

   When will you be posting more useless data?

10. madhaus Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    I love it when “tech guys” quote other “tech guys” to support their “tech answers.” Let’s see what the “tech guy”’s tech guy had to say in this thread:

    Hi Marco – the numbers posted in the Mercury News are useless, as are most of the articles they write based on these numbers. It’s not because the numbers themselves are false, but with faulty interpretation. The problem begins with confusion over what the median price represents and how it is calculated. It is simply the midpoint of the homes sold. Example: if 5 homes sell the first week of April ‘07 for $600K, $900k, $1 mil., $2 mil., and $2.5mil., the median would be $1 mil. Then in April ‘08, only 3 homes sell with prices of $875k, $900k, and $3 mil., so the median price is $950k. The Merc. would report prices down -10% and sales down -40%. While this may be factual, there are two reasons why this info is not useful: a very slow market provides too few data entries and weekly comparisons are too short of a time frame. This is not unique to Palo Alto. If you follow the Mercury News statistics weekly, it’s not unusual to see many zipcodes that are down -30% one week and up +30% the next.
    Median price is only a reliable measure of long term trends over wide areas. The key to proper valuation will not be found in the pages of the Mercury News and you can’t arrive at the value of any individual home based on the median price of a zipcode.
    I hope you find this, and my previous posting, useful in understanding the market. Emphasis mine — madhaus

    So basically the tech guy, who doesn’t seem to understand that the median of 875, 900, and 3000 is actually 900 (not 950), is complaining about using the median as an average (which he doesn’t understand) and that he’d prefer the arithmetic mean, which tends to respond more to outliers.

    I think I’d go with Dataquick over this “tech guy.” But a real estate pro such as Roland wouldn’t be discrediting numbers he doesn’t like, would he? And note his other helpful comment, those numbers are down because there aren’t enough sales that week. Except we know the DQ numbers are a 4-week trailing indicator, so nice try, Roland.

11. Herve Estater Says:
    October 11th, 2009 at 11:13 am

    Reduced to $45M. Buy with redfin and save $562,500!

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