Thanks to Burbed reader nomadic for this find.

Personally, I’m perplexed why this company would buy ads nationally. I mean, this clearly isn’t meant for the local market since no one would feel trapped in their Real Bay Area home. So, this must be targetted towards people in Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Miami and other go-no-where cities.

But, let’s say that this was meant for the local market – like East Palo Alto. How exaclty does a proposal like this work? How do they untrap you from your house? Anyone?

1681 PROVINCETOWN Dr, Cupertino, CA 95129 | MLS# 80926285
1681 PROVINCETOWN Dr Cupertino, CA 95129
Price: $1,549,888

Beds: 5
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 2,800
$/Sq. Ft.: $554
Lot Size: 6,500 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Mediterranean
Stories: 2
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 2009
Community: Cupertino
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80926285
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 23 days
Gorgeous new custom home in great neighborhood of 3 new home subdivision! Reputable national award winning schools: Lynbrook High/Joaquin Miller Middle/John Muir Elem. Custom design/built exterior and interior with high end materials and appliances. Elegant taste makes the house stunning and most desirable for living. A definite rare opportunity in the neighborhood! You don???t want to miss it.

Thanks to Burbed reader sonarrat for this find.

Why did he send it? Because he noticed this:

Um.

Maybe this is disputed territory, like Kashmir. That said, it does seem peculiar that all the RE listing sites allow this to be classified as Cupertino. Is this an indicator for some sort of future land grab? Annexation? What’s the deal?

Maybe, it’s a reference to the fact that Cupertino is now a state of mind, and not just a geographical area!

BTW, what awards have these schools won nationally that distinguish them?

Anyway, buy this house, and then provoke Cupertino into becoming an occupying force. And watch as your equity instantly soars!

290 CHIQUITA Ave, Mountain View, CA 94041 | MLS# 80929905
290 CHIQUITA Ave Mountain View, CA 94041
Price: $1,190,000

Beds: 3
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 1,565
$/Sq. Ft.: $760
Lot Size: 4,414 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 2
Year Built: 2009
Community: Downtown
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80929905
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 3 days
Brand New Home. Spacious floor plan, open and bright. Elegant Hardwood Entry Door w/ sidelights. Chef’s Kitchen w/ Stainless steel appliances, lots of hand stained cherry cabinets w/ Granite slab countertops. Gorgeous imported Tigerwood floors, Importd Tile and Marble in kitchen ad Baths. Spiral Staircase. Double hung, dual pane windows AND lots more. A MUST SEE TO APPRECIATE. .. Open Sat/Sun 12-5

Thanks to Burbed reader K.M. for sending this in.

Unfortunately, I think K.M. got things mixed up when she wrote this:

Outrageous, asking price on this house is double the Zillow, surrounded by a parking lot in a sketchy neighborhood.

Now while it’s true that Zillow only provides a ZEstimate of $585,000, I think this is more of an indicator of how Zillow can be unreliable.

You see, Zillow still doesn’t have a strong model for the Real Bay Area. They need to improve their algos to account for “special”. It’s hard, but I bet they could do it if they just knew about this deficiency.

Anyone here know any Zillow employees that they can talk to about this?

Realty Times – Silicon Valley’s New Record Home Price — $750,000

Silicon Valley’s New Record Home Price — $750,000
by Broderick Perkins

Three quarters of a million dollars; $0.75 million; $750,000.

Anyway you write it, April’s median price of single-family detached homes in Silicon Valley comes out the same.

“It’s crazy,” says Mark Burns, a Coldwell Banker agent in Cupertino.

The good news is that most experts say the market has just about peaked — for now — at the region’s new record price level for single-family detached homes, $750,000 — up a whopping $86,000 this year alone and $132,000 in the past year.

The median price for condos came in at $465,000 in April, up only $55,000 since the beginning of the year, and $80,000 from a year ago, according to the Bay Area Real Estate Market Newsletter by Richard Calhoun, broker owner of Creekside Realty in San Jose.

[snip]

“People come here from all over the world, not just all over the country. There’s an explosion in first time home buyers, baby boomers buying their second and third homes or smaller houses, immigrants, people going in together to buy homes. There are very favorable demographic trends, coupled with low interest rates and a finite number of homes,” Moles said.

Published: May 6, 2005

Recently I found this piece. Boy, it really brought back memories. <tears well up> I’m sorry. I’m all verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you a topic. Facebook is neither a face nor a book. Discuss.

Happy July 4th everyone!

I’m posting this one day in advance because I’m taking tomorrow off.

As is tradition on Burbed, here is the latest installment of “Groceries cost more in the Bay Area.” As usual, I have compared 3 cities where Safeway is available: Cupertino, Seattle (possibly our new enemy), and Washington D.C.

As we all know, it is our explicit goal to have the highest cost of living here. It helps keep the riff raff out, and promotes innovation by encouraging people to constantly work.

So… for those of you who are slacking off, not adding value by taking the day off to have a BBQ, here’s a sample grocery list and how much more it costs to have it in the Bay Area. I compared the exact same items on Safeway.com for these three cities, choosing only products that were not on sale. That explains there are no hot dog buns on this list – they were all on sale!

The Bay Area wins again!

So congrats to the Bay Area for once again being more expensive in groceries than Seattle and Washington DC.

Now if only Safeway.com would open in NY so that I could do a comparison there. That would be the ultimate match up!

Have a good BBQ tomorrow!

225 PACIFIC Ave, Redwood City, CA 94063 | MLS# 80924666
225 PACIFIC Ave Redwood City, CA 94063
Price: $219,000

Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Sq. Ft.: 880
$/Sq. Ft.: $249
Lot Size: 2,500 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1963
Community: Dumbarton
County: San Mateo
MLS#: 80924666
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 25 days
* * Priced to Sell * * Bank Owned Property. Sold AS IS Bank makes no represntations or warranties Current configuration is 3 Bedroom 1 bath no garage plus a studio that enters from the rear of the building.

I don’t understand how people can continue to claim that the Bay Area is unaffordable. Just look at this house.

Look! It’s even got 2 kitchens! All for just $219,000 per year! That’s just 2x the salary of a firefighter. Now… granted there may be some drawbacks…

But I assure you, you won’t have any problems at all sleeping in this house. Why? Because the only sound you’ll hear is the sound of equity building, and the pride of ownership blasting.

So to all you whiners who complained you can’t afford anything in the Bay Area that’s close to work – shut up and buy this house.

Your bluff has just been called.

1308 ISABELLE Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040 | MLS# 80926709
1308 ISABELLE Ave Mountain View, CA 94040
Price: $998,000

Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 2,066
$/Sq. Ft.: $483
Lot Size: 0.35 Acres
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Ranch
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1953
Community: Miramonte
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80926709
Source: MLSListings
Status: Pending Without Release
On Redfin: 12 days
Walk lot directly; appointment only for seeing inside of house. Huge 15,000 square foot lot in great neighborhood with a house that needs some TLC, but has hardwood floors, real plaster walls, good space. A rare sized deep lot for this area of Mt. View, close to the Los Altos border. Los Altos/Mt. View schools. Make sure to see behind the house – lot goes way back!

Do you need any further proof that the real estate market is booming, on fire, hot hot hot in the Real Bay Area after seeing this?

$998,000 for a tear down… on the market for 12 days and then pending without release.

Now, granted this is .35 acres, which is definitely a selling point – but it’s astounding isn’t it.

Liquidity is definitely flowing, people are definitely buying.

If we all cross our fingers, 2009 might just turn out to be a normal year of 9% year over year growth. Let’s hope!