2216 AMHERST St Palo Alto, CA 94306

$799,000

Beds:	1
Baths:	1
Sq. Ft.:	684
$/Sq. Ft.:	$1,168
Lot Size:	4,680 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Cottage/Bungalow
Stories:	Bi/Split Level
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1934
Community:	College
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	80942010
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	126 days

Redwood and oak cottage style hideaway. Redwood walls and cabinets and ceilings. Oak floors. Charming house and location. This oldie but goodie is a delight to see. Bring imagination and remodeling ideas for the kitchen. Good roof and updated bathroom. Friendly neighborhood with lots of trees near Stanford, shopping, etc.

Thanks to Burbed reader Galileo for this find!

First, we have seen this house before. Let’s go to the time machine:

September 30, 2009

Affordable house in Palo Alto for a student

2216 AMHERST St, Palo Alto, CA 94306 | MLS# 80942010
2216 AMHERST St Palo Alto, CA 94306
Price: $885,000

Hm… a bit of a price cut it seems. How unfortunate. At first, I was surprised – even shocked. I mean, after all, we would expect prices to go only up. But fortunately Galileo clued me in on this:

$799000 / 1br – OPEN SAT & SUN! Price Reduced! Hideaway for sale – Call to See!

2216 AMHERST STREET PALO ALTO

A truly unique redwood and oak cottage nestled on a tree-studded lot awaits you. The story is that this charming house was built for a young girl as a place to practice the piano while her family enjoyed peaceful time in their house next door. Offered for sale for the first time in over 30 years, this may be the place for you to create your own life stories.

The cabin-style exterior has a welcoming front porch which opens to a parlor with brick fireplace. The redwood interior has high, exposed beam ceilings, bookcases on both sides of the fireplace, wood windows, glass-front cabinets in the living/dining area and oak floors. The bedroom and kitchen are also redwood with oak floors in the bedroom and linoleum in the kitchen. Truly a cottage in the woods, this charming home enjoys the canopy of a heritage oak tree and a stand of bamboo providing shade and evergreen color.

Bordering Stanford University, the College Terrace neighborhood is enjoyed for its walkability, eclectic homes and sense of community. Neighborhood stores like JJ&F Market, a post office, public library and a host of interesting restaurants, coffee shops and retail stores serve the residents and provide places to congregate.

Year Built: 1934
Roof replaced: 2002
Bathroom remodel : 1992-93
Lot size: 38.5 ‘ x 120′ (4,620 sq. ft.) per City of Palo Alto
Home size: 684 sq. ft
Detached garage: Appears to be 1-car garage
Designated schools: Escondido, Jordan, Palo Alto High School (Buyer to verify)

www.2216Amherst.com

It looks like the realtor forgot these amazing details. Wow… who knew this house was for practicing the piano! And now it can be yours! Just think of the music geniuses your family can produce living in this cozy cabin.

I bet if the realtor had posted these details on the main listing, this house would’ve been sold already… and at over listing (of course).

131 KELLOGG Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301

$2,500,000

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 This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
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!

145 KELLOGG Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301

$3,100,000

Beds:	2
Baths:	1.5
Sq. Ft.:	1,032
$/Sq. Ft.:	$3,004
Lot Size:	0.34 Acres
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Cottage/Bungalow
Stories:	1
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1920
Community:	Old Palo Alto
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	80955648
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin:	24 days

Outstanding opportunity to own this property offered for first time since built in 1920, Exquisite land and bungalow home ready for modernization/expansion or rebuild. 75 foot frontage to Kellogg Ave. by 200 deep this is a handsome piece of land. The cottage is simple and reflects its day but is a perfect example of master craftsmanship. Hardwood floors are beautiful.

Thanks to Burbed reader nomadic for this find!

Wow… first time on the market since 1920. Amazing. Honestly I’m not sure why this would be on the market. The property tax is a mere $1,467 – you could easily rent this out and make huge profits.

But instead, the next buyer will pay $31,000 a year in property tax. That’s great for Palo Alto and the State of California and the 64 page document that explains how property taxes are split between cities and the state.

While not quite a trophy house yet, this can easily become one once you tear it down and build a nice 3000 sqft one. That’s just another $1 mil or so, but hey… trophies don’t grow on trees.

This is a strong start to 2010!

It’s Day 1 of our “Bay Area versus New York: Which suburbs are more expensive?” smackdown. To be fair, we’ll only look at reasonable houses: $1-$1.5 million.

For our first candidate, let’s look at tony Palo Alto:

3449 THOMAS Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94303 | MLS# 80952190
For Sale (MLS-listed)
$1,295,000
3449 THOMAS Dr Palo Alto, CA 94303
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,713

$/Sq. Ft.: $756
Lot Size: 6,930 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Attached Single Family
Style: Contemporary
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1957
Community: South Palo Alto
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80952190
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 23 days
Excellent Eichler set on 6930 SF lot(buyer to verify SF). Boasts of open light-filled flrpln & high beamed ceilings w/ clean lines. Updated kitchen w/ Sub-Zero Refridgerator & LR w/ FP & walls of glass to backyard. Newly remodeled bathrooms with Corian countertops. New paint, new carpet & custom closets in 3 of the 4 BRs. Secluded master suite w/ direct access to yard. Beautiful deck for entertaining.

Not too shabby. A nice affordable price. New carpet in 3 of the 4 bedrooms. Square footage sort of unknown. Lots of privacy too! Look you can’t even see the house!

Overall, an A++++ house in a great school district. A sure winner. Tomorrow, we’ll look at a house in New York in comparison… stay tuned!

144 TENNYSON Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 | MLS# 80952608

144 TENNYSON Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301

$1,450,000

Beds: 4
Baths: 2.5
Sq. Ft.: 2,400
$/Sq. Ft.: $604
Lot Size: 7,500 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Colonial
Stories: 2
Year Built: 1961
Community: Old Palo Alto
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80952608
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 9 days
Great opportunity to build in Old Palo Alto! Approved building plans to build 2 single family homes with shared driveway. Each home is approx. 1875 sq ft with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths 1 car garage and 1 uncovered car space each. Each home will have a nice size backyard and side yard. Designed by award winning architect Stephen Pogue.

Thanks to Burbed reader Paul for this find.

Everyone’s looking for a great investment these days, and there’s no better one than Palo Alto of course.

So let’s see… if you scoop up this ginormous 7,500 sqft lot, you could build two 1875 sqft homes! At $300 per square foot (only the best granite please!), that would be an additional $1,125,000. So that’s a $2,575,000 investment.

But in the end, each of these houses with their shared driveway and nice sized backyard will undoubtedly sell for at least $1000 per square foot – netting you a total of $3,750,000. Hey hey hey! That’s a return of 45% on your investment. CHA CHING!

Let’s take a look at the present street view to see how this will pan out:

Oh yeah. That’s totally going to look like the listing pic when you build two houses there. And I”m sure your neighbors are going to love it!

What are you waiting for? Even Bernie Madoff couldn’t promise an investment return like this. Go for it today!

(BTW, this house was last sold in 2008 for $1,510,000, so there’s an instant equity angle to this as well!)

2150 WAVERLEY St, Palo Alto, CA 94301 | MLS# 80913495
2150 WAVERLEY St Palo Alto, CA 94301
Price: $3,950,000

Beds: 4
Baths: 3
Sq. Ft.: 3,018
$/Sq. Ft.: $1,309
Lot Size: 0.26 Acres
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Colonial
Stories: 2
View: Ocean
Year Built: 1928
Community: Old Palo Alto
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80913495
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 231 days
ELEGANT COLONIAL IN ONE OF OLD PALO ALTO’S MOST PRETIGIOUS LOCATIONS. ON AN 11,200 SF LOT. SPACIOUS, OVER 3000 SF HOME W/ 4BR AND 3 BATHS. INCLUDES FORMAL ENTRY, FORMAL DINING ROOM, SEPARATE FAMILY ROOM, MASTER BEDROOM SUITE, DEN/STUDY & GROUND FLOOR BEDROOM.

Thanks to Burbed reader Darren for this find.

Wow! I know Palo Alto is the center of innovation in the universe, but this I did not expect. Just how exactly did they get this house to have an Ocean View?

I mean… a view of Steve Jobs 1 block away… maybe I could get that. But Ocean Views? That must be one heck of a LCD screen.

That said, what Darren was perplexed by was why this was last sold in 2003 for $2,300,000, and now it is on the market for $3,950,000.

Frankly, if you think about it, that’s just 9.5% year over year compounded appreciation. Is that really so hard to believe? After all, this is the fortress of the Real Bay Area.

The real shocker is that it wasn’t 10% year over year.

If you’re at all interested in this house, you’d best buy it now before it $9.8 million in 2019!

It’s search engine Thursday.

Recently someone found this site by searching for: palo alto, median household income

This is actually a very tricky question.

According to City Data, the median income in Palo Alto in 2007 was $102,565.

According to Zillow, the median income in Palo Alto is $90,377.

According to the Bay Area Census, the median family income in Palo Alto in the last 12 months is $153,197 and the median household income in Palo Alto is $119,046.

Without a doubt, $153,197 is the closest number to the truth.

However, even then this is skewed because it includes all the people who don’t need to work to live in Palo Alto. For example, the neighbor of this house for sale who pays just $1370 a year in property tax. These people, who incidentally may just as likely be 21 years old, as they are 81 years old (because the low tax rate can be passed to kin), need to be discounted since let’s face it, they have no income for all intents and purposes.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a chart that shows the distribution of income in Palo Alto. Without that, one can only assume.

So, if you exclude the income free Prop-13 enhanced people in Palo Alto, my magical calculation reveals that the median household income is close to $300,000.

Using a health Californian multiple of spending 5x (because it’s risk free) of your income on housing, that means that a median Palo Alto family can afford a $1.5 million dollar house.

And wouldn’t you know it? That’s just about the same as the median listing price according to Redfin.

Question closed.

Updated: Thanks to Burbed reader SanMatean for this chart:

Cha-chingggggggggg!

2876 LOUIS Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303 | MLS# 80950038
2876 LOUIS Rd Palo Alto, CA 94303
Price: $899,000

Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Sq. Ft.: 1,260
$/Sq. Ft.: $713
Lot Size: 6,050 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Ranch
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1947
Community: South Palo Alto
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80950038
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 12 days
Fixer Upper. Bring your contractors. Palo Alto High School. Grt Midtown location. Gud floor plan. Sum nu dual pane wndws; rest of new wndws in garage ready to be installed. Lrge bck yrd. Gud size bdrms. Nuvr furnace/AC. Wish seller had fixed it; wud be able to sell it at far hgr $; so it is ur chance to make some sweat equity in Palo Alto.

Thanks to Burbed reader Maureen for this find!

This is what Maureen had to say:

Love your site. This listing appears to have either an lolcat or a texting tween as the realtor. And I think there is a poster of Ahnold in his body building days up in the bedroom.

Ooh… let’s take a look at the interior:

Yeah, I think there’s a high likelihood of texting or LOLCatting here. This is a pretty geeked out house. I mean, it’s not typical that the staging company would leave spindles out on a table, and show a situation where there are two offices.

But hey, this is Palo Alto… geek center of the universe. Know they audience! Nerds everywhere probably see these pictures and go “OMG! WANT!”. You don’t want to FAIL as a realtor after all.

Now… if only ceiling cat would make an appearance…