Redwood City to come back to Real Bay Area in 2011
1215 RUBY St Redwood City, CA 94061
$564,000
Beds: 2 Baths: 1 Sq. Ft.: 690 $/Sq. Ft.: $817 Lot Size: 2,604 Sq. Ft. Property Type: Detached Single Family Stories: 1 Year Built: 1955 Community: Central Park County: San Mateo MLS#: 81040194 Source: MLSListings Status: Active On Redfin: 24 days Everything is spruced up and full of special touches in this charismatic home. Living room features ample windows and hardwood floors that open to the remodeled kitchen. Kitchen is accented w/ white cabinetry, marble countertops, viking range, dishwasher drawer and much more! Gardener’s paradise w/ colorful plantings & mature landscaping. Utility room off garage ideal for craft room/office.
Who doesn’t like an underdog? And when I think underdog, I think of Redwood City. Although it has climate best by government test, this city has had its ups and downs with its status of being in the Real Bay Area or not.
And now. This. $817 per square foot. $564k for 690 square feet. Wow. A strong showing for re-admittance into the Real Bay Area.
This could be the start of something big. I predict that 2011 will be the major year of the Redwood City come back. It’ll be the new “hot” destination. People will be telling their realtors “I want you to show me houses in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Cupertino, and Redwood City.”
You heard it here first everyone!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:07 am
It looks like there is a garage hidden behind that tree. The agent did the right thing to try and hide it. If I remember right, garages are just a waste of land in the RBA.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:27 am
RBA: pending without release
Not RBA: reduced to $549K ($796 per sq ft)
September 30th, 2010 at 8:37 am
I hadn’t noticed the lot size: 2,604 sq ft. Half a million for that? That’s definitely RBA material.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:48 am
For god’s sake, this RBA parroting is SO BORING. I liked it better when this site was all about the crack houses and East San Jose places with cubicles.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Cheer up, sonarrat. Check out this house on my favorite street in San Jose that sold for $640k in August ’06 and is now pending at $278,888:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/1158-Pipe-Dream-Ct-95122/home/919902
September 30th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Nomadic -
Are you serious? PIPE DREAM COURT???? That’s hysterical. From now on whenever I feel I’ve done something dumb I’m going to think of the ’06 purchaser and laugh.
September 30th, 2010 at 10:18 am
#3, zoom in on the aerial photo. Isn’t it amazing how much of that lot a little 690 sf shack takes up? That’s a win! You can see how BIG your house is that way!
But no way it’s in the RBA. I give you this:
See that? Sold for $215K in 1992. That’s 18 years ago, so the price should have almost quadrupled by now. But it’s only gone up 2.55 times. If this place were in the RBA it should have been listed over $840K.
Interesting that the place went up between ’88 and ’92. The first was a bubble up price and the second after it burst. Peak of that bubble was late ’89 and early ’90, so those sales nicely bracket it. Redwood City homes weren’t selling at the same premium compared to San Jose that they are now, as there were fewer jobs in South San Mateo county.
So given that, this place should have more than quadrupled.
September 30th, 2010 at 10:29 am
#6, that street’s been on burbed before.
And I have a comment in there from two years ago that’s really funny, given #5:
September 30th, 2010 at 10:33 am
nomadic, that Pipe Dream Ct is in the middle of ghettoville San Jose.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:06 am
That pipe is referring to an Opium pipe.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Yes, I know, Alex. That’s what sonarrat was longing for.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:11 am
#4 + #9 + #10 = crack pipe.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:21 am
I just sent Burbed a new batch of scrapers in the Silicon Valley ghetto. Here’s a preview: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/1657-Alum-Rock-Ave-95116/home/28545482 What kind of a business would you put in this colorful neighborhood?
September 30th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Do you think the person who picked the name ‘Pipe Dream Court’
1. knew what it meant?
2. was especially prescient?
3. was mocking the people who would live on the street?
No matter how nice the house I’m not telling people that’s my address. Luckily the houses they built there don’t conflict with the name.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
#14, I think the developer called the street that name because he was thinking of this joke:
September 30th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
I’m with sonar – I miss the $888,888 crack houses. The link in #13 is a good start.. The pic under the street sign is especially attractive. It’s good to know that even during the recession, people are tripping over themselves to buy garbage for nearly 3/4 of a mil.
Would it be too much to ask for an entire week where nobody is allowed to say “RBA” or any similar derivative?
September 30th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
#16, I concur.
I nominate next week to be Non-RBA Week.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
My parents owned a house like this when they were first married. It was the early 50′s and they paid $5,000 for it. Whenever they talked about it they made it clear they never considered it anything more than a place to live while they saved money for a ‘real’ house. In other words if you buy this house you should be able to stockpile serious cash even after paying the mortgage.
And they say America has gotten more affluent.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
#18: You misspelled “effluent.”
September 30th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Very true, madhaus.
Today a young couple would have to stretch to make the payments on this place – even after the deep price reduction that’s probably coming. And that’s if they have minimal student loan debt. This is a small two bedroom house that’s only really suitable for a couple and a baby.
What’s that loud flushing sound?
September 30th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Remember the days when so many wanted to buy today at yesterday’s prices? Sadly many of those $888,888 crack shacks seem to have been priced out forever. Now we have buyers wanting to buy today at tomorrow’s prices, and sellers wanting to sell at prices from 2-3 years ago.
You know something is wrong when buyers and sellers are both hoping for a better deal in the future. Assume equal discount rates, and it seems we have a zero sum game.
How long will it be until we hear, “Once upon a time there was a Real Bay Area, and everything was grand and glorious, but then the $888,888 crack shacks started to disappear. At first only a few people noticed, especially those who frequented burbed, but in time it became more and more obvious that the most significant 8 could no longer hold up. First it gave way to 7, then 6, then 5. How could this happen? With each passing digit the Real Bay Area became smaller and smaller. So many long to return back home to the golden RBA.”
September 30th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Is that from The Lorax?
September 30th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
“nomadic, that Pipe Dream Ct is in the middle of ghettoville San Jose.”
Yet it sold for $640k in August 2006. I know that there is no chance that there is any relationship between RBA pricing (which doubles every 10 years or sooner) and BA pricing. But the ratio of RBA pricing to non-RBA BA keeps going higher.
Let’s see… At one time I might have considered buying this Pipe Dream ghettoville San Jose property for $640k or a RBA PA home for roughly double or triple.
Today? I can buy a Pipe dream for about 1/6th to 1/9th the price of a RBA PA home. It won’t be long until I can have the whole pipe dream for the cost of one PA RBA home.
Basic math:
RBA PA homes have increased in value by 1/3 or more in the last 4 years. Thus 2 to 3 times $640k becomes 6 to 9 times $280k, or PA homes increased from ~$1.3M-~$1.9M to ~$1.7M-~$2.5M.
What were these ghettoville buyers thinking?
September 30th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
nomadic- Not directly from The Lorax, and I would have provided credit if it were. That said, I was thinking about Detroit as I was writing it. I am sure the residents of Detroit during the 1950s could have never envisioned its current blight.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
What were these ghettoville buyers thinking?
ha. what was the strawberry picker “thinking” when he bought a house for $700k+?
-
I didn’t mean directly from The Lorax. More of a potential paraphrasing… In the 1950s it would have been unthinkable that Detroit could become what it is today.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
No, no paraphrasing. I had to look “The Lorax” up before I even knew what you were talking about. Maybe I’ll check it out at the PA Children’s Library–it has five copies, but all are currently checked out.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Yes please more crack houses please.
I was wandering around in Palo Alto a few years ago, I had this thing about spotting old trailer parks I mean OLD trailer parks, and caught a glimpse of one and turned in. It was somewhere in the area of that big Volvo dealer on San Antonio. I go in there and the trailers are all 1950s early 60s at newest, and it looked like originally, each trailer space gave the renter also a little storage shack. The denizens of this place, some real feral people, were living in the shacks. They were on their best behavior seeing new meat, er, a new renter or something come in, but I could tell the arguments, flying bottles, and knife fights normally added an atmosphere of rustic charm and community.
The denizens were paying $300 or so a month to live there, and had their little 100 square foot or so sheds plus a the vintage trailers, the odd old bus, etc. It was so creepy and fascinating, like I’d happened on a treasure, and I could hardly wait to get out of there so I did. I was never able to pin down where it was to find it again. All I know is it’s somewhere near the big Volvo dealership, just off of El Camino.
Now that’s the RBA.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Do you mean Buena Vista Mobile Home Park?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=&geocode=&q=West+El+Camino+Real,+Palo+Alto,+CA&sll=37.415104,-122.128379&sspn=0.004653,0.01545&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=W+El+Camino+Real,+Palo+Alto,+California&ll=37.414814,-122.128422&spn=0.004653,0.01545&t=h&z=17