The Real Bay Area is back, and with a vengeance
36 LYELL St Los Altos, CA 94022
$1,099,500
Beds: 4 Baths: 3 Sq. Ft.: 1,466 $/Sq. Ft.: $750 Lot Size: 6,969 Sq. Ft. Property Type: Detached Single Family Style: Traditional Stories: 1 View: Mountains, Neighborhood Year Built: 1946 Community: North Los Altos County: Santa Clara MLS#: 81020948 Source: MLSListings Status: Active On Redfin: 53 days Location Opportunity! Downtown Village charm, private fenced back yard, majestic oak tree. Room for garden. Bonus room. Nice house, 4 bedrooms, 3 updated baths. 4th bedroom suite off garage. So dont miss bonus room off the garage!
Thanks to Burbed Gallileo for this find. Here’s what G had to say:
Sold in February 2010 for $975,000, now on the market for $1,099,500. With no improvements over the past four months listed in the description, that is a work and investment free annualized appreciation of 43%! Now that is what I call the real bay area!
You heard it here folks… Real Bay Area real estate is about to resume its place as the world’s best and safest investment.
Bernie Madoff eat your heart out!
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:16 am
The listing agent is going to make a killing on this, 6% four month ago and 6% now
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:48 am
It was $1,199,500 until recently…
Anyway, I love what they did with the backyard. What’s the right word? Lush? At least there is an exotic plant for Real Estater.
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:55 am
Gaysey- Let me remind you that’s the total commission, not what the listing agent walks with, unless the listing agent gets all four parts without any related expenses. Also “the listing agent” may be two different people.
Using the 6% split into 4 equal parts, the listing agent’s part is 1.5%, or $1,500 per $100,000. By selling for $100,000 less, the seller/owner will realize $94,000 less, but the listing agent will give up $1,500, with a maximum of $6,000. Of course this is less than as if it would have sold for the ‘extra’ $100,000.
Think in terms of discount rates. If you are the listing agent, and let’s assume you earn 1.5% (25% of 6%), would you rather:
1. Hope for $1,099,500 (Listing agent’s part = $16,500)
or
2. Sell right away for $999,500 (Listing agent’s part = $15,000)
Basically do you, as the listing agent, prefer $15,000 right away, or would you rather wait for $16,500?
I’ve made the basic assumption that it will sell for $1M but it may take a long time, maybe never, to sell for $1.1M. If it does not sell, the listing agent earns 6% of $0 = $0.
Note that for the seller the $100k would make the difference between profit and loss, after selling expenses. The seller has $1M on the line, yet the listing agent is hoping to make ~$15k with far less invested.
June 23rd, 2010 at 11:50 am
Some great news:
“New home sales plunge 33 pct with tax credits gone”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100623/ap_on_re_us/us_new_home_sales
Who would have thought?
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Nice find, Gallileo! Wish we still had steve posting here, he always had a close eye on Los Altos neighborhoods.
What’s with the 4th bedroom and the bonus room (which I shouldn’t miss) off the garage? Sounds like this house may have a really funky layout.
PG, lush? Haha. Try abundant! Riotous! Concentrated! And definitely verdant. Heh.
Reminds me of the scene in Toy Story 3 showing what happens to stuff treated at the landfill. Shred city. Can you say “woodchipper?”
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Yes- we all saw that lovely news about new home sales taking a crapper. That shouldn’t come as a surprise because economists have been pinning the success of recent real estate activity to these incentives.
My take is that people are obviously still pulling out every dime they can get their hands on to buy a home, exhausting their savings and in many cases retirement funds along the way to get in. The incentives were basically indicators of how much true financial leverage Americans have, which would at this point seem hardly any. Not at current prices and not even with interest rates at ridiculously low rates.
There will be a double-dip in real estate. I’d say we’re looking at 2012-2015 before any sort of real stability returns to the market.