“Close to dynamic and happening Downtown San Mateo”
727 E 5th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94402 MLS# 80818394 - Property Details
$685,000
* Status: Active
* Bedroom: 2
* Bathroom: 1
* Year Built: 1927
* Lot Size: 5650
* Square Footage: 1190
* List Date: 6/27/2008
* Garage Spaces: 1Wow- Single Family Traditional Home with Garage and Yard. Walk to Town. Why?? pay condominium association fees or rent when you can own this Sparkling and Cute Home? Close to dynamic and happening Downtown San Mateo. Extra garden room connected to garage.
Gotta love that phrase “Close to dynamic and happening Downtown San Mateo.” Seriously! So close that your house is actually on a fairly well trafficked roadway.
But that’s ok, at $685k, this sure beats owning a condo and having to pay HOA fees. Of course, it’d probably be a condo in Mountain View or Cupertino where it would be nice and quiet - but still, this is Downtown San Mateo baby! It’s got Caltrain, the Movie Theater and more. Even Honda Hospital is near by.
And why rent? Just because for an equivalent amount of rent, you could rent a nice quiet apartment in Cupertino, would you be able to own on a busy street?
Face the facts, this is a great buy no matter how you look at it!
Woo! Happenin’ Downtown San Mateo. I just love the sound of that.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Is this posted by WG?
I am sure oh this is renting out for $3500, why rent when you can buy? This is such a colorful photo and the sky is so blue that it is a little scary (did someone spill blue into the sky?).
September 5th, 2008 at 8:47 am
$3,500. nah… didn’t you hear? The rental market is WHITE HOT, and people are probably going to gladly pay $5,000 a month to rent this house. A sure sign that the RE bubble is about to re-inflate any minute! You suckers who are foolishly waiting around for prices to fall more ( which they won’t because I think that the bottom has been reached) will be sorry when you are all priced out forever, just like the last bubble.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Burbed is mistaken - E 5th is a quiet street with barely enough room for two cars side by side. It’s 3rd and 4th which carry a lot of traffic off of 101. It’s not too close to the train tracks, either. I’d love to live there.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Sonarrat, if you would really like to live there, then you should make an offer. Maybe they will come down a bit to 650k, maybe even 640k, you would save a bundle, and live where you would love to live.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Let me rephrase that: I’d love to live there if I could possibly be able to afford it, even by renting it out for 30 years until the mortgage was paid off.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:26 am
But in 30 years, that would put you in your mid-fifties, wouldn’t that be too old to enjoy a dynamic and happening Downtown San Mateo.
Or do you like the neighborhood for other reasons?
Burbed, I don’t know about you, but I tend to go to downtown SM often, I used to go to downtown PA a lot, but now that I’ve moved north I like downtown SM. Though I might consider downtown SC now that I noticed it is larger than previously thought. Downtown SM has a lot of Japanese restaurants, which I thought over saturated the market, but apparently not. I also like the Peruvian restaurants there, but I’m naturally biased. I would rent an apartment in the area if the premium wasn’t so high. The supermarket there is scary though, the prices…
September 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am
The city of San Mateo is probably the proud owner of the maximum number of overpriced crap shacks. Even the school is not that good.
There is a nothing “middle class” about San Mateo.
Anything on the west side of El Camino demands a huge premium in price. And the east side is a goldmine for burbed.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I like the neighborhood for Draeger’s alone. Most expensive grocery store I’ve ever seen, but they have some amazing stuff you won’t find anywhere else. Amici’s pizzeria is great too. And I’d like the ability to walk to Caltrain, too. The nearest station to me is two miles off.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
sg- I live West of ECR, and I can guarantee you that the middle class is alive and well in SanMat. Our street is populated by inumerable pickups, indicative of the service-type jobs that are quite common among owners here. Most people who have moved in in the last five years are white collar management types, but aside from this relatively recent anomaly, San Mateo has traditionally been a blue-collar city. It seems as though the employment base of San Mateo might be transitioning, what with the growth of Franklin Templeton, EA, Oracle, and nearby biotech, but it remains to be seen if the recent trend of uber-gentrification will continue. I could easily see TheMat return to its work-for-aliving roots.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
What makes you say that the gentification process might revert?
Incidentally, how long have you owned your place there?
September 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
What middle class? The Brazilification of the United States continues, and what San Matean is observing is consistent with the Joanne Jacobs article I mentioned about Palo Alto, written, I should note, about 20 years ago:
- If you bought here 40 years ago, you’re a cop*
- If you bought here 30 years ago, you’re a teacher
- If you bought here 20 years ago, you’re an engineer
- If you bought here 10 years ago, you’re a doctor
- If you bought here 5 years ago, you’re a lawyer
- If you’re buying now, you’re a CEO or venture capital fund manager
Okay, so San Mateo is now being discovered by the engineers. You just wait until the doctors start moving in. I’m not sure where the gardeners and construction people are going to live. Under the headstones in Colma?
*Yes I know about cops getting paid more than teachers, but that’s now. I don’t think overtime had quite run away back then.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Where is the garage for this house? It looks like the peaked section on the left was the garage and they converted it, then planted a shrubbery down the middle to hide where the driveway used to be.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
SM is a nice town, not as good as San Carlos probably, but no comparison to Redwood City. It is amazing to me why a dump like Redwood City can command such high prices with the bubble. West of El Camino are pretty nice neighborhoods for San Mateo, are them blue collar?
Just look at downtown, Sunnyvale sucks, Mountain View good, Palo Alto excellent. San Mateo/San Carlos/Burlingame/Foster City all have better downtown than Mountain View.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
>> West of El Camino are pretty nice neighborhoods for San Mateo, are them blue collar?
<<
You will hardly find a house that is priced below 1 million.
Does that sound blue collar?
May be it is for prop 13 beneficiaries.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
madhaus, the garage (detached) is in back. Look at Google’s satellite picture and it looks like the driveway fronts on Fremont Street. This is a corner house.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
SM is a nice town, not as good as San Carlos probably, but no comparison to Redwood City. It is amazing to me why a dump like Redwood City can command such high prices with the bubble. West of El Camino are pretty nice neighborhoods for San Mateo, are them blue collar?
Redwood City is cheap, cheap, cheap.. at least east of El Camino Real. The area between Jefferson and Woodside in 94061 is weakening too. 94062 is still very strong, especially the Crescent Park area.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Foster City has a downtown? Have simply never seen it? I thought Foster City’s downtown was like that of Cupertino’s.
Also, I’m shocked you would rank San Carlos’ downtown over Mountain View. It’s Laurel St vs Castro St? Castro St is like twice as long, and has side streets as well.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I go to Laurel Street every couple of months and it does not compare well with Castro street (where I go at least once a week). These are for appointments — then I look for coffee and/or food. The construction on Laurel is still going on.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Theres a part of San Mateo up on Parrot drive where it feels like you are practically in Hillsborough. There are all those mini mansions off of 3rd to the west of the downtown, and then the aragon (?) area that has the charming homes like Willow Glen. So there are many San Mateo’s. San Mateo is a lot like some of the larger cities in the bay area- really really expensive zipcodes and then the more modest ones.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I’ll have to agree with burbed, Foster City’s downtown is either the Safeway and Longs shopping center, -or- that other dinky shopping center by the post office with the 7/11. thats all there is.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Try the north end of Laurel in SC next time - especially Town.
Town is also a good place to people watch. Some of the flirting between the 50 year old, hat wearing, divorced men and the twenty something gold-diggers is always quite entertaining to watch…..
September 5th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
the thing about mtn view downtown is that it is a very lunchtime oriented downtown. Lots of places you wouldn’t mind going for lunch. As opposed to more north of the peninsula where if a restaurant opens it is a nicer dinner place. Laurel street has more fine dining. Spassa, La Tosca, Piacere places like that. In Mtn View you get “sues indian cuisine”. Good and all but much more for lunch.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
> I’ll have to agree with burbed, Foster City’s downtown > is either the Safeway and Longs shopping center, -or- > that other dinky shopping center by the post office
> with the 7/11. thats all there is.
If FC had a downtown it would be the Costco, definitely the busiest place in town.
Original poster probably meant the central park (Leo J Ryan) across the Safeway which is actual downtown.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I was confused about the mention of Foster City’s downtown too. I remember someone once saying downtown Fremont existed too, neither of which I’ve ever found. Maybe it is like saying downtown Belmont, a small shopping district. The idea of a downtown Foster City doesn’t make sense because as opposed to other towns on the peninsula Foster City is not a railroad town.
BTW, if you didn’t know the reason PA has a shopping district on California Av., is that PA when founded was close to another town there called Mayfield, that was eventually annexed to Palo Alto sometime early last century.
Did you know there was once a streetcar line to San Mateo from the city?
September 5th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
If you look at the price history of this home, you’ll see that it sold for $279,500 in 1989 (the last bubble), and then $125,000 in 1994. So I think it should probably drop another $300k if history repeats itself.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I haven’t been to Foster City in 3 years, alright maybe there is no real downtown in Foster City. I usually go to places like Hillsdale Blvd off the lake (central park), the mall with Costco, etc. What you have something in Mountain View to match that? Shopping and dining by the lake (not diverse enough but pretty good for a mall), some sort of downtown.
Laurel is not as good as Castro? I think restaurants are comparable, and shopping wise it is better (what upscale shop does Castro offer? Alright Laurel does not have much either but I feel they are better boutiques). If you feel you are going to cheaper boutiques then you must be right madhaus.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I don’t shop at boutiques, I am happy if I can find a decent bookstore. And Laurel doesn’t have a locksmith selling remotes like Castro does. No, the restaurants are not compatable, unless you are referring to a different part of Laurel than I’ve been to. There are more restaurants in 1 block of castro than there were in 5 blocks of Laurel.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
there’s not even a book store on laurel.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
if you look around there is a post that explains the history of mayfield. also a post that explains the history of how fremont used to be 5 cities.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
personally i like downtown los altos. but also there is no bookstore there.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I had a long post about downtown FC, but it disappeared, anyway it is on the internet, not yet built:
http://www.vmwp.com/projects/downtown-foster-city.php
September 5th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The Draeger’s is so expensive it made the Whole Foods (otherwise known as whole paycheck in some areas) look like a bargain supermarket. I could spend money at Whole Foods or Draeger’s or I could buy a condo, or do all other sorts of stuff to spend money, but that would make it really hard to pay back my student loans, or save up for a real downpayment on a condo.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
There is a children’s bookstore on Laurel. No adult bookstore though.
There is a locksmith, but you are probably right Madhaus, I don’t think it sells remotes.
Restaurant choices if you want to compare to Mtn View - http://www.cityofsancarlos.org/residents/things_to_do/restaurants.asp
September 5th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
There is a Christian bookstore on Laurel called The Door, too. At least it was there when I lived in San Carlos 3 years ago.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The house looks weird. With the blue sky, the paint and the tree, it looks like a 3D rendering to me.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Stepford, that list probably covers 10% of San Carlos restaurants. Restaurant that bad on Laurel? I am not talking about the sheer number. Heck Sunnyvale down center probably have of them than Castro, but I don’t have any that I like in particular, there is even classy ones there, but I can cook better than they do, and I am not even a good cook. The Italian and Thai restaurants on Castro are all awesome. I guess this is very subjective on my statement.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:23 am
“Laurel is not as good as Castro? I think restaurants are comparable, and shopping wise it is better (what upscale shop does Castro offer? Alright Laurel does not have much either but I feel they are better boutiques).”
Rick -I prefer Laurel to Castro too. I do shop at the boutiques on Laurel and prefer to patronize the small business owners when I can. I haven’t lived in Mtn View for many years, but I don’t recall it having much except restaurants on Castro so I have no incentive to go there rather then somewhere else with equally good restaurants.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Burbed- I could see San Mateo revert if there are price declines in nearby RBA, especially Burlingame, San Carlos and Redwood shores. SanMat’s schools, with the exception of Baywood and Highlands are significantly behind these neighboring communities. The question is: will tighter lending standards translate into fewer buyers competing for the available properties in NorPen RBA? I’ve got nothing against SanMat in general, it can be a wonderful place, but many of the neighboring communities have unmistakably more to offer!