More importantly, who wants another $100M property enough to put up with a sales condition like this?  Thanks very much to Burbed reader nomadic for alerting us to yet another nine-digit property.

Estate and Lands of De Guigne
Undisclosed Address in Hillsborough, CA
$100,000,000

To the south of the Golden Gate Bridge, large parcels of land are rare. Located half-way between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley in the bucolic Town of Hillsborough, an approximately 16,000 sqft. Mediterranean-styled, Bliss and Faville mansion is positioned on approximately 47-acres which have been owned for 150 years by one family. Decorated by celebrated interior designer Anthony Hail, the mansion interiors encompass elegant and ornate public rooms, which evoke the sophistication and grandeur of a bygone era. Grand-scale Ballroom, Living Room, Library and Pavilion are aligned to open to a Pool Courtyard, revealing sweeping views of San Francisco and the East Bay. Formal gardens and park-like grounds adjoin dozens of undeveloped acres surrounding the mansion, providing ultimate privacy and security. Timeless, sophisticated and elegant, the deGuigné Estate represents a rare opportunity to own one of California’s few remaining mansions surrounded by substantial acreage near an urban center.

Yadda yadda big yadda yadda acreage yadda yadda old yadda yadda history yadda yadda expensive.

Oh, and Mr. De Guigne isn’t leaving this house alive. Literally.  You buy this house, and you have to wait for him to croak before you can move in.

This, by the way, seems to be Plan B.  Plan A was when he tried subdividing the heck out of the place in 2009, which did not endear him to his neighbors. And he did that because he had an expensive divorce to finance.  Also the house cost much more to run than he got living off his investments, the poor dear.

Also, we likely found an actual address, because this sure looks like the entrance: 60 Glenbrook Drive.  Note the road going from Glenbrook to the Big House.  While the property records indicate a smaller home, the lot is 10,000,000 square feet on Zillow, or 227 acres.  The listed house is probably a gatehouse/caretaker’s cottage.

This is also your Open Thread. Going to look an any Open Houses as spacious as this?

1305 AVONDALE Rd
Hillsborough, CA 94010
$2,100,000

“First time on market in many years”

No interior pictures.

“Lots of potential”

For some, these these facts may inspire some horror. What lies beneath this placid surface? Will it be a den of moldy rooms, complemented with wood panels and… gasp… a lack of pergraniteel?

I, however, am an optimist. I believe that these are actually code words for the savvy that this house is for those who value their privacy. Targeted at the execs that run Major Social Network Site and Major Search Engine, who don’t want anyone to know anything about them. In fact, it’s probably a good bet that it’s not pergraniteel inside… but rather redwood tree-elephant tusk-titanium inside. Could anything be more elite? Could anything require more privacy?

Are there any adventurous Burbians who could take a look inside this house and report back on what’s inside?

The San Francisco Chronicle breathlessly reports that the Mitt Romney For President Campaign (nickname: UnMittigated Disaster) paid a visit to the Real Bay Area.  The Romneys were welcomed by co-hosts Meg Whitman and George Shultz… and a very SF Bay protest group.

Romney collects funds in Hillsborough

Carla Marinucci, SF Chronicle; Updated 12:45 p.m., Saturday, September 22, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has had a trying week, what with the surfacing of a video in which he appears to dismiss 47 percent of Americans as government freeloaders.

So he was probably looking forward to being among friends at a high-dollar fundraiser in Hillsborough Friday evening. But in the solidly Democratic Bay Area that meant he first had to experience an enthusiastic greeting from about two dozen protesters as his motorcade drove through the wealthy neighborhood where the event was held.

Some of those protesters carried signs reminding him of the video, in which Romney appears to denigrate supporters of President Obama. Others jabbed at his release Friday of his 2011 tax returns.

What this article neglects to cover is the Hillsborough house.  Fear not!  Burbed has #factchecked the reportage!

The house used for Romney’s fundraiser belongs to Ada Regan and is, according to the Los Angeles Times, “a 13,820-square foot manse with nine bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms…”  And what did Mr. Romney think of it?

Speaking about a dinner held for him in the Bay Area the previous night, Romney noted on Saturday that the driveway to the estate appeared at least a mile long.

“It’s like, Oh my goodness, how in the world? And then we came to the home, and it was like San Simeon, you know, the Hearst Castle,” Romney told donors at a different fundraiser on Saturday. “It was this beautiful home with gardens, manicured gardens, and a pool and a topiary and so forth.”

OMFG Oh my goodness! A topiary!  Bet they don’t have those in La Jolla.  You know what else they don’t have?  A house on 48.26 acres. Check this parcel out (right)!

We also arranged for a UAV with a camera to bring you these ultra-secret aerial photos of the house itself.  (Drones: they’re not just for assassinations anymore!) Remember, no mile-long driveway can keep Burbed from reporting to you on current house events!  The only way to stay off this page is to keep your house off the entire internet!

“Bunus:” Zillow thinks this ginormous house on 2 million square feet of land is worth five million dollars.  That would be about right if the house came with one acre.  Can’t win them all, Zillow.

Now, let’s take two recent items in the news.

• Secret video of Romney taken at a Florida fundraiser causes no end of headaches for the Republican Presidential candidate
• The iPhone 5 is released yesterday

Hmmm.  Are you thinking what we’re thinking?  Keep an eye on YouTube for more amazing MittVid in full 1080p.

There are several real estate search sites out there that let you peruse homes on the Multiple Listing Service.  Regular Burbed readers may have have noted we’re partial to Redfin.  Zillow gets noticed for their ZEstimate, an automated model that attempts to value most homes in the United States.  Some of our fans like Trulia, as I get the occasional submission pointing to their site.

I just took another look at Sawbuck when I put a recent feature together.  Sawbuck is a Washington DC-based site that partners with local agents in several regions, including the Bay Area.   Until I found their listing information last week, I figured Sawbuck links were just nuisances. Google searches for property addresses pointed to Sawbuck’s very silly videos that were animated frames for MLS photos and information. 

But this time they had a very detailed page on the house I was checking out.  The videos were gone, even when Google pointed to embedded players.  They also had something I haven’t seen on any of the other sites before.

Their pages for each city have a Market Overview, showing how many homes are for sale, the median list and sales price, ho-hum, seen it.  But I hadn’t seen a Market Health Score on a city’s real estate activity before, at least not on a site that links to individual home listings.  Altos Research does something like that called the Market Action Index (MAI), but they’re in the Useless Aggregate Data business.

So how is the market doing in the Real Bay Area?  Let’s have Sawbuck and Altos fight it out, after the break!

(more…)

Ooops, my bad.  It’s a trick.  It’s a trick!

You see, Forbes has their new list of the 500 Most Expensive Zip Codes out, and it’s time to see how much of the Real Bay Area (RBA) can Occupy The Forbes Zip List!  Since this series is a perennial Burbed favorite, we’re going to devote the next five hundred weekend posts to lovingly analyzing every single aspect of this new set of delicious demographic domicile data.

Today: The Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes

Hey wait, come back!  This is going to be really good!  We’re going to see which zip codes gained or lost ground since last year!  Maybe some of them get kicked out of the RBA for this!  This is a Burbed exclusive, too, Forbes didn’t bother doing any analysis of their own list changes.

Plus this year’s Forbes feature has the top 50 places show the most expensive house so we’ll link to each listing, plus what you can get for a mere million. That means nothing in the RBA except one crapshack in Los Gatos despite their featuring 20 different “expensive” zips.  Ha ha!  Our expensive zips are so Special we don’t let any stinking one million dollar properties in!

We also love to catch Forbes in mistakes, so if there’s something more expensive they missed, or if they otherwise screwed up like last year, we’ll be sure to let them know with as much obnoxious chortling good-natured ribbing as possible.  It’s going to be awesome!

Updated: And the TRICK is on Forbes for a Burbed Treat!   They have screwed up very, very badly.  Badly enough that I’m wondering if their (bad, really bad) mistakes made it to the print version of this feature.  If anyone has a copy, please let us know in comments.

I’ve grabbed the Days on Market (DOM) from the big table as Burbed readers Divasm and nomadic point out every single zip had a DOM of 200.  That’s highly unlikely.  Nice going, Forbes!  I can’t wait to see if your other numbers disagree too!  (Yes, they’re fvcked.)

I’m also putting a break in right after the first entry, because this article is not one of our shorter pieces.  And now, here they are!  Every Northern California entry in Forbes Top 50!

#2: Atherton 94027

• Median Home Price: $4,295,000
• Median Price Change: +7.1% ⇑
• Average Days On Market: 200 162
• Inventory: 162 41
• Rank Last Year: #2 (no change)  ★ Exclusive BURBED content, Not on Forbes! ★
• Most Expensive Home: $20 Million (52 Tuscaloosa Avenue)

Oh little town of Atherton
How high we see thee lie
Above thy rich and floodless ditch
You burst with equitie
Yet in they dark streets shineth
No mortgage meltdown mess
The hopes and quips of other zips
Are met in thy address

Oops, Tuscaloosa now listed for $18.9 million.  Sorry about that!  Are you Astonished?

Also I found this $24M home, listed a month ago.  Guess they missed it when putting their article together, since it ran a couple of weeks ago.  But Homes of the Rich found it too.

More after the break!  Much more!

(more…)

Twas the night before Christmas
And I didn’t own a house
Not a Realtard was stirring
Not even to grouse

Our last Black Friday DEAL before you open your presents tomorrow morning is this lovely little fixer-upper in the sure-to-impress-people-who-are-impressed-by-these-things community of Hillsborough.  There are less expensive homes that pop up if you search in this area, but this listing has an actual Hillsborough mailing address.  Don’t be confused by imitation “Hillsborough neighborhood” homes in Burlingame or San Mateo!  Buyer to verify with city whether any services are granted to this location.  (Okay, my ass is covered in case this is in Ladera North.)

751 Endfield Way, Hillsborough, CA 94010
$1,399,000

Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 3,130
$/Sq. Ft.: $447
Lot Size: 0.35 Acres
Property Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 2
Year Built: 1933
Community: Hillsborough Park
County: San Mateo
MLS#: 81036919
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 150 days

Charming hide-away on private cul-de-sac in lower south Hillsborough. 2 Bedrooms with 2 Baths. 3 additional bedrooms with 2 baths. (unwarranted) Enclosed sunroom and partially enclosed patio for BBQ’s. Family eat-in kitchen.

Hide-away is right!  The agent didn’t even give us a picture of the front of the house.  And the Googlecam is foiled by Hillsborough’s large lot sizes.  Talk about unwarranted!

Originally listed for $1,550,000 in July and a DEAL at twice the price!  It even has the trendy Southern California feature of Mello-Roos!  Now that’s a tax most of your friends aren’t paying, and you can get extra misery points by noting they aren’t even deductable!

So when you head out to the store today for some extra eggnog, why not pick up this little unwarranted cottage on your way back to your rented home?  Santa might stuff it down somebody’s chimney tonight, but this way you can ensure it’s yours.

Happy Christmas to all,  and to all a good night!

Forbes Magazine has their annual most expensive zip code collection again, and high-end real estate agents rejoiced.  This feature is the Capitalist Tool’s usual suck-off to NAR, with the lovely pictures there to move some expensive houses.  Anyway, California, despite its budgetary and property value woes, completely cleaned New York’s clock.  Unfortunately, Los Angeles is getting ahead of San Francisco.

Here are the top ten:

1. 91008, Duarte, Calif.
2. 94027, Atherton, Calif.
3. 90274, Rolling Hills, Calif.
4. 07620, Alpine, N.J.
5. 10014, New York, N.Y.
6. 90210, Beverly Hills, Calif.
7. 10065, New York, N.Y.
8. 94920, Belvedere, Calif.
9. 10012, New York, N.Y.
10. 93108, Santa Barbara, Calif.

If ever a list defined what flyover land was, this is it.  All ten are California or New York City suburbs.  How did Greenwich, Connecticut get knocked off this list?  More importantly, how did a town full of ginormous houses next to Monrovia get on it?  91008 is mostly big, expensive homes in Bradbury, but the post office calls the zip Duarte. High-priced enclave surrounded by working-class city, good thing we don’t have anything like that in the Real Bay Area (RBA)!

And we sure don’t have anything like this:

High-End Slump Slows
The median price of America’s high-end homes continues to slide, but not as fast as it did last year. Our index of 500 high-end ZIP codes saw the average home price fall 5%, to $1.2 million, from the same time last year. In 2009 the markets on our list saw a 7% price drop.

About 35% of the ZIP codes in our index saw median prices increase or stay flat, but that’s likely because more high-priced homes are coming on the market, while more affordable housing continues to falter. “The year-over-year price changes we’re seeing here aren’t necessarily the change in price for your house, if you have a house in this area,” says Simonsen. “It’s a change in the mix of homes on the active market.”

Anyway, on to the high-priced zips in the Bay Area.  Photos, stats, and smarmy real estate copy is from Forbes.  You’ll recognize what isn’t, and I’ve hunted down all the real estate so you don’t have to.

#2 – 94027: Atherton

Median Home Price: $4,010,200

Median Price Change: 4%

Average Days On Market: 109

Inventory: 57 properties

Median Household Income: $200,001

This remodeled mid-century four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,010-square-foot ranch with a cathedral ceiling, fireplace, media room, two-car garage and gardens sells for $4,488,000. It is listed with Alain Pinel.

And it’s up 4%.  RBA Win!  This house on Fredrick Ave is still for sale, listed 63 days.  Buy now with Redfin and save $56,100!

#8 – 94920: Belvedere

This three-bedroom, four-bathroom 4347-square-foot Spanish-style stucco home in the section of 94920 that’s in neighboring Tiburon offers views and a fireplace and sells for $3,195,000. William J. Smith has the listing.

What’s this?  The zip is shared with Tiburon?  Outrage!  If Belvedere had its own zip, it would kick Bradbury’s butt!  But wait!  This house isn’t in Belvedere but in Tiburon?  That’s bait and switch!  Just for that I won’t buy the house on Buckwheat Court.  In Tiburon.

#15 – 94022: Los Altos Hills

This 4,000 square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bathroom Mediterranean-style home has a stucco exterior, vaulted ceilings, a fireplace and study and is selling for $3,195,000. Alain Pinel has the listing.

Up 34%!  New York is our beeyotch.  And so is Forbes, because this house is on Jay St, in Los Altos, No Hills.  It’s also new construction.  Three lots down from busy El Monte.  You’re welcome.

#18 – 94024: Los Altos Hills

This 4,673 square-foot six-bedroom, four-bathroom home has hardwood floors, a fireplace, vaulted ceilings and a swimming pool. It is listed for $2,899,000 with Campi Properties.

Sloppy work again, Forbes.  This house is also in Los Altos, not Los Altos Hills.  And it’s only 4,367 feet, so you’re off by almost 300 sf.  It’s on Young Ct, off Summerhill, off Magdelena, off 280.  Talk about any easy commute, provided you don’t work anywhere near 101.

#20 – 94010: Hillsborough

This 4,190-square-foot, six-bedroom, five-bathroom home has a double-height foyer, two-car garage, fireplace and swimming pool, and is offered at $3,095,000 by Alain Pinel Realty.

What the – 101 properties listed in Hillsborough?  Are there even 101 properties in Hillsborough?  Trick question!  The zip is shared with Burlingame!  And this listing on Eucalyptus was a trick, too.  Everything in the description lined up, and here I thought they were going to put it in the wrong city.

But who the heck buys a 6 bedroom house with only a 2 car garage?  Where will the servants park?

There’s plenty more zip code madness to come, in another installment.  Although if you’re buying things on installment, you’re priced out of these zips.  Forever.

In Depth: America’s Top 25 Towns To Live Well – Forbes.com
12. Hillsborough, Calif.

Population: 10,553
Location: In San Mateo County, south of San Francisco and north of San Jose.
Median income: $320,715

Strongest categories: Like many of its peninsula neighbors, Hillsborough’s proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley means there are plenty of high-paying jobs in emerging fields.

Drawbacks: There aren’t many small businesses or start-ups in Hillsborough itself. It has one of the top five most-educated labor pools based on our analysis, but little in-town business activity.

11. Belmont, Calif.
Population: 24,625
Location: South of Hillsborough, and in between San Francisco and San Jose.
Median income: $102,466

Strongest categories: Belmont residents may not have as much cash on hand as their northern neighbors in Hillsborough, but there are far more businesses emerging there. Local firms have attracted $878 per capita in venture funding, and the city scores in the top quarter for its number of restaurants and bars.

Drawbacks: While its scores for BLS-defined professionals and business start-ups are stronger than most, they simply aren’t high enough to place Belmont in the top 10.

10. Foster City, Calif.
Population: 29,081
Location: South of San Francisco and north of Redwood City
Median income: $119,780

Strongest categories: Home to many top companies, big and small, including Visa International, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sling Media, Foster City ranks first on our list for its share of highly skilled workers, particularly with a background in tech, and in the top five for its per capita number of patents.

Drawbacks: There isn’t much happening in Foster City. There are plenty of office parks, but it offers few cultural institutions and restaurants.

5. Cupertino, Calif.
Population: 50,572
Location: South of San Francisco and west of San Jose.
Median income: $128,149

Strongest categories: A great start-up environment in the heart of the Silicon Valley and home to a number of semiconductor and technology companies, most notably Apple, Cupertino succeeds as a mix of a place for established businesses and small shops. It ranks in the top 10 for sole proprietors and small businesses per capita.

Drawbacks: While you certainly can’t complain about the warm climate, Cupertino simply didn’t do as well as the top cities on our list even in the categories considered its strengths.

4. Mountain View, Calif.
Population: 70,960
Location: South of Palo Alto on the Bay Area peninsula.
Median income: $88,736

Strongest categories: While there’s plenty more to Mountain View, the average commute time of 20 minutes is a rarely found pleasure of Bay Area living. Credit Mountain View’s standing as our most active venture capital markets, for an abundance of entrepreneurs running their own businesses, which in turn means they don’t have to commute to bigger cities like San Jose and San Francisco.

Drawbacks:There aren’t a lot of restaurants, music venues, museums or cultural attractions in Mountain View, though it isn’t too far for residents to trek 15 miles into San Jose.

Congratulations to all the Bay Area cities that made the cut. Wowsers! Wowsers! Thank you for keeping the Real Bay Area real, and justifying the high housing prices in the area. Who cares that these cities didn’t have the highest incomes of the top 25… it’s the high prices that matter.

Here’s the methodology for those of you who care:

To determine the best towns in which to live well, Forbes teamed with ZoomProspector.com, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in corporate relocation. Because geographical definitions range widely, we used the term “town” to describe every city, town, borough or Census-designated-place under 100,000 people. To rank each town, we looked at median income; average commute; distance to highways and airports; per capita venture capital funding; per capita number of small businesses, sole-proprietorships and start-ups; the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees or higher; the share of professional-level workers as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); the percentage of young and educated people, or those 25-34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher; and the percentage of foreign-born residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. We also measured the per capita number of restaurants, bars, museums and cultural institutions.

Go figure. Who knew that making “per capita venture capital funding” a criteria would help boost all these Bay Area cities to the top of the list! Go figure!

To celebrate, this week I’m going to feature a house from each of the cities!

And in case you were curious… this is who was number 1:

1. Boulder, Colo.
Population: 90,648
Location: Northwest of Denver, in the mountains.
Median income: $54,243

Strongest categories: Boulder is a consistent high performer in all our measures. The city’s businesses bring in $1,165 in per capita venture capital funding; it ranks fourth for its young and educated population of those 25-34 years old, in the top 5% for its patents per capita, second for its number of sole proprietors, fourth for its number of museums and cultural institutions and has an average commute of 17 minutes.

Drawbacks: If you don’t like snow, this might not be the place for you.