$659,000

1163 CURTISS Ave San Jose, CA 95125

Beds:	3
Baths:	2
Sq. Ft.:	1,449
$/Sq. Ft.:	$455
Lot Size:	3,920 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Craftsman
Stories:	2
View:	Neighborhood
Year Built:	1910
Community:	Willow Glen
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	81119629
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Active
On Redfin:	15 days

TIMELESS STUNNING RESTORATION OF OLD WORLD CRAFTSMAN. CLASSIC DESIGN, MODERN CONVENIENCES. ORIGINAL REDWOOD PANELING, HDWD FLOORS, GOURMET KITCHEN W/ GRANITE & STAINLESS APPLIANCES. FRESH DESIGNER CUSTOM CRAFTSMAN COLORS. FILLED WITH CHARACTER. YOU DO NOT FIND THEM LIKE THIS. COMPLEX MOULDINGS AND ORIGINAL BUILT-INS. WALK TO LINCOLN AVE. FABULOUS DOWNTOWN AREA. NEW LIBRARY. DANCIN ON ‘THE AVE’

Thanks to Burbed reader BCD for this find!

Here’s what BCD had to say:

Looks like this modest and nice-looking home from 1910 was once on a larger lot … then someone got greedy and built three new houses nearly touching each other immediately behind it.
The new three houses sold, but nobody has wanted this 1910 house for quite awhile.  Maybe it’s the hobbit-sized "third" bedroom, maybe it’s the five-foot-wide strip of a "backyard" that faces a prison-like blank wall, but the property has been listed more than 10 times between the summer of 2007 and now.
Sniff.

If you go to Redfin and sign in, your browser will explode with history. Seriously.

Wow… this definitely is… uh… dense:

But hey… you’ll love your neighbors! Or not! Maybe you can put up a toll and charge the other 3 houses an entry fee. Oh how sweet that would be!

Thanks very much to Burbed reader nomadic for finding this fascinating property that is today’s featured house. 

956 TERRA BELLA Ave, San Jose, CA 95125
$2,475,000

BEDS: 5
BATHS: 4
SQ. FT.: 5,000
$/SQ. FT.: $495
LOT SIZE: 0.36 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Tudor
STORIES: 2
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 2001
COMMUNITY: Willow Glen
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81103858
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 59 days

Custom Tudor estate close to downtown Willow Glen restaurants and shops! Formal entry has 28’ceilings, red oak hardwood floors, dramatic chandelier, formal spiral staircase. Formal dining/living rooms with wet bar over sized fireplace. Epicurean granite kitchen has top quality appliances. Expansive 2,000sf game room and 7 tandem car garage. Backyard with granite outdoor kitchen! And SO much more!

Here’s what nomadic had to say about this house:

I was checking out the most expensive houses in Willow Glen, wondering "who in their right mind would spend $2.5M to live there?"  Then I found this house.  This house has a seven car tandem garage.  It is two cars wide.  Check out the satellite view.  A house perfect for the car collector who doesn’t like to enjoy their cars and just keeps them in the garage all of the time.

Okay, check out the satellite view we shall!

Looks like the garage is the same size as the entire house.  Somebody had their priorities straight.  And I must say, a seven car tandem garage is pretty amusing, especially because the agent called it a “7 tandem car garage.”  Plus it’s got granite, both inside and outside, so you can have that bubbly mid-oughties feel.  But there’s a bonus in today’s feature, one I am very excited about.  I am so delighted because I get to break out the red arrows again!

Look, everyone, it’s the return of the MAWBUL KAWLUM.  Even in this master bedroom picture, there are all kinds of KAWLUM-like objects.

And the rooms that spared themselves KAWLUMnosity are almost as silly.  Like the dining room where the swag matches the built-in cabinets and the picture frame.

Or the wine cellar.  Nothing says grapes aged to perfection like halogen track lighting and both walls and ceiling painted to match Campbell’s Cream of Tomato Soup.

And what is that in the backyard at the right rear?  Looks like the covered wagon was left in place, to remind them of their pioneer roots. And they value their history so deeply they’d leave that hayseed dispenser on the grounds despite destroying the entire house and erecting this neo-Tudor with a bunch of fourdoors in the tandem garage.  There’s just the littlest hint of that 7 car garage in the upper left, showing how far they’ve come from horse-drawn farm vehicles.

Update: nomadic found the link to the virtual tour, so enjoy the 7 tandem car garage!

And a “bunus” picture FTW:

1517 HICKS Ave San Jose, CA 95125

Listed at: $650,000

Beds:	2
Baths:	1
Sq. Ft.:	734
$/Sq. Ft.:	$886
Lot Size:	10,143 Sq. Ft.
Property Type:	Detached Single Family
Style:	Victorian
Stories:	1
Year Built:	1929
Community:	Willow Glen
County:	Santa Clara
MLS#:	81012515
Source:	MLSListings
Status:	Pending Without Release This listing is in escrow, past inspections and waiting for loan funding. “Without Release” indicates that the current buyer doesn’t need to sell a home to buy the new home.
On Redfin:	46 days

Check out this wonderful lot. Dimensions are appx. 69 x 147sf or 1/4 acrew. Existing houseon lot is older and has not inherent value. Build your dream home as the market for custom homes is great. Builders can alos see the upside down. Please be careful if you want to go into the house. Take your time and walk the lot.

Thanks to Burbed reader Madhaus for this find and guest post! Here it goes:

This property has a number of things going for it.  First of all, this older home has “not inherent  value,” which is better than having no inherent value.  Second, it claims to be in Willow Glen, which, like the RBA, can expand to fill the entire 95125 zip code, or contract to the corner of Willow and Lincoln.  The northwest corner.  And third, it’s being shown by the prestigious Realtards at Alain Pinel, so you know somebody is paying top dollar to move this pile of wood. But best of all, despite the snooty pretensions of the agency, here’s an ad for an older home (if eighty years is older, I’d hate to see what they call “decrepit”) with so many typos, were this a ninth grade essay I’d be giving it a D and I’ve only read the first paragraph.  Shall we have a little fun?  We shall.

Check out this wonderful lot. Dimensions are appx. 69 x 147sf or 1/4 acrew.  Oh dear, somebody misspelled
‘screw.’ Existing houseon lot is older and has not inherent value.  houseon lot?  Don’t they mean housing lot?
Build your dream home as the market for custom homes is great.  Especially during an economic downturn
like nothing since 1933. Builders can alos see the upside down.  Whoops, misspelled ‘alas.’  As in, ‘Alas, I
can see the upside down.’ Please be careful if you want to go into the house.  since you may never be seen
again due to the sinkholes, especially the sinkhole your equity is headed for. Take your time and walk the lot.
Yes, indeed, take lots of time.  Maybe wait about six years until you make an offer on this place.

Somebody didn’t take their time.  It’s pending.  I hope they were careful when they went in the house.

UPDATE: Fixed an editing error.

1310 TENAYA Dr, San Jose, CA 95125 | MLS# 80943802
1310 TENAYA Dr San Jose, CA 95125
Price: $739,000

Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 2,050
$/Sq. Ft.: $360
Lot Size: 6,930 Sq. Ft.
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Style: Ranch
Stories: 1
View: Neighborhood
Year Built: 1956
Community: Willow Glen
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80943802
Source: MLSListings
Status: Pending Without Release
On Redfin: 53 days
Excellent value on one of the greatest streets surrounding Schallenberger Elementary. .Open floor plan with living room and dining room combo. .. seperate family room. .hardwood floors and new carpet. .new roof. .dual pane windows and interior painting complete. .great yard. .walk to local shops and restaurants. .change of seasons with a change of address. .

Thanks to Burbed reader tridba for this find.

Actually this was sent in back in September, but I just found it while cleaning out my junk mail folder.

That’s unfortunate because this house is now pending without release.

I’m sure you could probably swoop in and try to place an offer that’s 2x above listing price to try and score, but it’s probably too late.

After all, this is the greatest street surrounding Schallenberger Elementary – not just a good street, the greatest. History books have been written about this street and how it conquered would be contenders. Those weakling lanes, avenues, courts, and drives were no match for this street.

Tenaya. It’s the street of champions. Without this street, your children are at risk.

So please, think of the children. Start camping out on Tenaya now so that you can get a house on the great street of what must be the greatest elementary school in the history of mankind.

911 Curtner Avenue, San Jose CA 95125 – Trulia

911 Curtner Avenue, San Jose CA 95125

$349,000

1 br 1 ba 860 sqft Single-Family Home
Description provided by Trulia.
Description provided by Realty Trac.
Contractor special! ! Diamond in the Rough – Great location, deep lot. Home needs TLC. Quieter part of Curtner. Lowest price home around. Motivated Sellers! Potential seller financing.

Now come on… would you really need owner financing for this. I mean, most Bay Area folks can pay this on their credit cards.

That said, I do like the tarp roof thing going on. It’s protecting the brand new roof so that when you move in, it will be all nice, new and shiny. Right?

And the garage door… don’t worry… it’s part of the disguise to ensure no one will break in to steal your car. And check out how long that drive way is! Can you say “Runway”?

At .13 acres, this is an exceptional deal in Willow Glen.

Thanks again to sonarrat for today’s find!

America’s Most Overpriced ZIP Codes – Forbes.com
America’s Most Overpriced ZIP Codes
Matt Woolsey, 07.29.08, 4:00 PM ET

In San Jose, Calif., home to Silicon Valley and some of the highest home values in the country, a bumper sticker reads, “Dear God, one more bubble before I die.”

Chances are the car’s driver lives in Willow Glen, a neighborhood with a small-town feel, Spanish-style single family homes and a main street with sidewalk cafes and locally owned shops. To live there, residents are paying the city’s highest prices relative to what they could pay to rent similar properties in the same area. When you compare mortgage payments to the value of a similar home on the rental market, the price to buy is 26.1 times higher, one of the biggest differences in the country.

Willow Glen is one example of a neighborhood where homeowners are still taking chances on future appreciation–and paying a premium above and beyond their neighbors for that confidence.

[snip]

But expensive does not mean always mean overpriced.

Limestone townhouses on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, for example, are listed for ever-dizzying prices. Financier J. Christopher Flowers bought a $53 million townhouse on East 75th Street in 2006, and sold a smaller East 73rd Street townhouse undergoing renovation for $23 million in 2007. Expensive? Yes. Overpriced? Not so much. Consider that a five-bedroom mansion on East 74th Street that once belonged to Eleanor Roosevelt is currently listed for $60,000 a month. Prices may be tops in the city, but prime rental prices are peerless as well.

Instead, the country’s most overpriced areas are ZIP codes like San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, 94122, which, given its location near the Pacific Ocean and on the south side of Golden Gate Park, was during the most recent boom widely thought to be up-and-coming. Median prices surged from $560,000 in June of 2003 to a peak of $771,000 in March of 2008, based on Trulia.com price data drawn from California’s multiple-listing service.

Still, it’s not as overpriced as New York’s TriBeCa (10013) or Boston’s Chinatown (02111), where demand for high-end condos, new development and proximity to downtowns have pumped up prices.

Goddamnit. New York beats us again. Heck even Boston’s 1 block of Chinatown beats us. Why can’t we ever win? Why can’t we have the most overpriced Zip Codes?

What can we do as community to win? Let’s think out of the box people!

Thanks to Burbed reader Michelle, Mia, and many more for this find.

Technology for Real Estate Professionals: Web: Walmart Joins Online Listings Derby With FREE Classified Ads
In fact, a search for all classes in 95125 returned 646 listings on Walmart classifieds, including an astounding 318 foreclosures. I have been reading about “shadow inventory” on the bubble blogs, but this is the first time I’ve found so many foreclosure listings in one place. I checked mlslistings.com, the public face of the MLS for Santa Clara County, and they had 341 listings in 95125. Zillow only returned 46.

Well that’s mighty peculiar. Any one know the full story behind this?

MLS-2.com: Property Details
1597 CROSS WY, San Jose,CA,95125 – $799,000

4 Beds 2028 Sq.Ft. Aprx. 2 Car Garage MLS#: 770159
2.5 Baths 6,534 Lot Size 4 Yrs Old Aprx. List Date: 2008-01-04

What’s new on MLS-2: Search by % Price Drop // Search by “MOTIVATED SELLERS”

Description – 1597 CROSS WY, San Jose,CA,95125
Majestic Sleeping Beauty 9? Ceilings Built NEW in 2004 From the Floor UP! 4 Bedrooms 2.5 Baths Extensive Crown Molding Pergo & Tiled Flooring Dining & Family Combo Recessed Lighting {Master Bath Has Separate Jacuzzi Tub & Full Shower} Brand New Kitchen Cabinets Slab Granite Counter Tops New Appliances Formal Living Room Gas Log Fireplace Stunning Bathrooms Inside Laundry Room Large Patio Area

Now let’s face it – columns make anything look classy. That’s why Burbed reader Brendan sent in this house.

Let’s take a look inside, shall we?

WOW! Everything looks so much classier when you have columns! It’s like the whitehouse – it’s classy because it has columns! Man, this totally blows the last columned house on Burbed out of the water!

If you don’t believe me that columns make any property better, check out this testimonial that was featured on national broadcast TV!