$2k per square foot in Palo Alto
$2,500,000
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Beds: 2 Baths: 2 Sq. Ft.: 1,138 $/Sq. Ft.: $2,197 Lot Size: 0.28 Acres Property Type: Detached Single Family Style: Cottage/ Bungalow Stories: 1 View: Neighborhood Year Built: 1924 Community: Old Palo Alto County: Santa Clara MLS#: 80955657 Source: MLSListings Status: Active On Redfin: 24 days Wonderful opportunity to rebuild or modernize this adorable cottage which has not been on the market since it was built in 1924. Fabulous 12,500 sf lot with 75 foot frontage to Kellogg Ave. Original home has been well maintained and is an excellent example of master craftmanship. This private and expansive lot is a great place to make home.
Thanks to Burbed reader nomadic for this find!
Was yesterday’s house a bit too much and out of your price range? Well, that’s fine. Here’s another house straight from 1924 for you to buy.
Again, the current owner only pays $1,402 per year in property tax, but you’ll pay $25,000 per year in property tax. But that seems fair because you’re going to use 18x as much services as the current resident.
Opportunities like this don’t come by everyday. What would you do with this house? Perhaps one strategy would be to wait and see what the guy down the street is doing, then build a house that’s even bigger and better. Remember… a trophy isn’t a trophy unless it is larger and better than your neighbor’s trophy!
Another strong start for 2010!


January 5th, 2010 at 7:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of buyers who agreed to purchase previously occupied homes fell sharply in November, an indication that sales will fall this winter, undermining last summer’s recovery.
The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements fell 16 percent from October to a November reading of 96. It was the first decline following nine straight months of gains and the lowest reading since June.
The drop was far larger than the 2 percent expected from economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The report shows that consumers are taking their time following the extension of a tax credit deadline. The incentive of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers was set to expire at the end of November. But Congress pushed back the date and expanded the program.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:20 am
1,000 people homeless on Solomons after tsunami.
Now, what are these people going to do? Most likely they will move to the RBA and buy houses here.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Alex – isn’t that old news? Pretty much everyone (the analysts) expected sales to drop because of the demand pulled ahead when people thought the tax credit was expiring. Combined with seasonal sluggishness, it’s a double-whammy.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Herve Estater, don’t leave out all of the folks evacuated in the Philippines for the latest volcanic eruption! They’ll get into bidding wars with the Solomon Islanders I guess.
(Not that we should really be joking about their misfortune…)
Aw, the alert there has been reduced:
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201001/2786124.htm?desktop
January 5th, 2010 at 11:36 am
woohoo! I’m going to buy some commercial real estate! Best time to buy is when everyone is going bankrupt. Right?
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2010/db2010015_516128.htm?campaign_id=bwdaily_related
January 5th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
The RBA needs a few Charlie Starkweather types.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
this will help raise local house prices!:)
from the WSJ, via Mish:
“I can’t see over the top of the files on my desk,” said Cathleen Moran, a bankruptcy attorney at Moran Law Group in Mountain View, Calif., likening it to the rush of clients before the revised law went into effect. In a three-month period before those rules changed in 2005, her firm filed five times as many cases as usual.
Ms. Moran’s clients in 2008 typically were people who earned between $40,000 and $80,000. That changed last year when a rash of people who earned $100,000 to $300,000 began filing as well, she said.
“Expenditures that were rational when these people were working at the peak of their salary just are no longer sustainable when they lose jobs or take jobs at a third or a half of what they were making before,” Ms. Moran said.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
nomadic, it’s not old news. Economists were expecting only a 2% drop in sales. The actual decline was 16%. Yip yip. The market is recovering. Not.
January 5th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Okay, then the shift from private to public schools will help the RBA!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-01-06-1Apublicprivate06_CV_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
January 5th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Also more and more people switch to 87 octane.
November 16th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Sold.
Sep 23, 2010 Sold (Public Records) $1,500,000 — Public Records
Sep 23, 2010 Sold (MLS) $1,500,000 – Inactive MLSListings #81037978
Listed for $2.5M (from above)
Sold for $1.5M (redfin.com)
Asking price at pending $2.0M (redfin.com)
Yup, that’s $500k (not a lot of money) under asking, but what school are the seller’s kids going to attend?
And shouldn’t the home be passed down to the next generation?
Once again, I fail to see how this can be happening in 94301. Then again I’m not sure how one can pass a home down to the next generation and use the over-bidding to pay for their education.
November 16th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Still a huge win for PA. The old assessed value was $70k.
November 16th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
nomadic- Maybe the buyer should have rented?
November 16th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
As I said before, $1000/sf is a fair price to pay for 94301. In this case the seller obviously adopted an unusual pricing strategy, but still did well as measured against my guideline. In fact, the property is located very close to Caltrain (and the future high speed rail), which is probably why the seller decided not to pass it on to the future generation.
November 16th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Once again, I fail to see how this can be happening in 94301.
—–
As our real estate expert said, it is impossible to overprice in 94301. When this property with 12500 sq-ft lot size was listed for $2.5M, it was located in different zip code. This one has moving parts for sure. Although little bit slow (it took 9 months to move into 94301).
November 16th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Real Estater- “In this case the seller obviously adopted an unusual pricing strategy.”
I’m starting to see a bit too much of this new “unusual pricing strategy.” Hopefully the RBA can get back to “over-bidding.” We don’t want all the kids deprived of a proper education.
November 16th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
>>As our real estate expert said, it is impossible to overprice in 94301.
I’m pretty sure the only person who has ever made the above statement is you, Pralay.