Yes, we’re getting near the end of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Aren’t You thrilled? Today we’re heading up to the whine, whoops wine country to see what prices are doing far from the SF/SV axis of insanity.

And, Yoiks! This doesn’t look much different!  A generous but not ginormous house, on a comfortable, but by no means estate-quality lot. Perhaps the owners thought they were in Saratoga or something?

6761 Jefferson St
Yountville, CA 94599
$3,100,000

3 Beds
2.5 Baths
2,600 Sq. Ft.
$1,192 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 2006
Lot Size: 0.27 Acres
On Redfin: 116 days
Status: Active
Property Type: Residential, Detached, Single Family
Stories: 2
County: Napa
Style: Craftsman
Community: Yountville
MLS#: 21300060

Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home. Two-story main house with 3BD/2.5BA; pool house with kitchen & full bath; pool/spa plus numerous special features. Top quality throughout. This is the finest residential property in Yountville.

There isn’t much for sale in Yountville right now, and we wondered which best exemplified the market.  There’s a snouty looking condo, two cottages crammed onto one lot, a brand new place with some really tired-looking pix, a tornado-watch of charming trailer mobile homes, and this Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home. 

Or should we say this Extraordinary custom-built California craftsman style home that’s been sitting on the market for 116 days.  Built right when the bottom was Yanked out of the exurban market in 2006, Yet.

Yikes, what to do? How about You let us know what You’d pick if you had to live in Yountville?

Some homes demand your attention because they’re in a perfect location, location, location.  Some are visually stunning.  Some feel right as soon as you walk in.  Some have stellar views.  Let’s see what’s preening itself all the way up in St. Helena, thanks to Burbed reader Tom Paine!

1269 Allyn Ave
St. Helena, CA 94574
$960,000

2 Beds 
1 Baths 
1,176 Sq. Ft.
$816 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1900 
Lot Size: 7,405 Sq. Ft. 
On Redfin: 4 days
Status: Active
Property Type: Residential, Detached, Single Family
Stories: 1
County: Napa
Style: Farmhouse
Community: St. Helena
MLS#: 21300576

Uncompromising address, this historic circa 1900 Farmhouse is located on one of St. Helena’s most charming streets loved for its close location to downtown & picture-book residences. The distinctive brick exterior & interior walls w/ abundance of windiows creates a light & airy, visually exciting residence. Highceilings, hardwood floors, stone root/wine cellar, a modern country kitchen & the vintage barn adds to the history & unique period charm

Tom calls attention to these important facts about the house:

The windiows make this a special place.  Paid $440k in 1999.

But that’s why you’re going to have to compromise.  This house is not in the Real Bay Area, and that’s why it’s only a special place. 

Not a Special place.

At least it has highceilings.

You thought we forgot about our Black Friday Deals Deals DEALS? Of course not!  We’ll be throwing in our rock-bottom sale items whenever the mood strikes us, and right now, the mood slapped us silly while saying, “Hey, how about you find another Cheapest In The Whole County” item?  We’ve only got two counties in the Bay Area left, so today we’re headed up to the Whine Country!

Warning: This is definitely not The Real Bay Area.

205 LARIAT St
CA 94567
$89,900

3 Beds 
2.5 Baths 
2,504 Sq. Ft.
$36 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1993 
Lot Size: 0.74 Acres 
On Redfin: 181 days
Status: Active
Property Type: Residential, Single Family
View: Canyon, Hills, Mountain, Valley
MLS#: Lc12071394
Style: Two Level
County: Napa

Far from the maddening crowds. .. your own private sanctuary located in Berryessa Estates! This home features parquet flooring in the dining area and living room. The living room has a fireplace with bench seating, two decks on either side while offering open access to the dining area right off the kitchen. The Master is located on the main floor and also offers access to one of the two decks. Master bath features jetted tub to chase the cares of the day away. Downstairs is an oasis with a large family room with pellet stove and 2 additional bedrooms, bath, laundry room and the patio. Decks overlook the valley, what a great way to unwind! True there is work to be done but if you’re seeking seclusion, put this property on your list and take advantage of this great price reduction!

True there is work to be done.  Maybe it could start with rounding up this home a city to go with its street address.

What else needs to be on your list?  That is, aside from the bills from Cal Fire, the problems with the water and sewer services, and the growing number of foreclosures in the area due to residents unable to pay the huge water and sewer service bills. And bonds.  And fines for sewage spills.

Looks like if you move here, you’ll be tied up with all these exciting challenges!  But not as challenging as the previous owners who bought it in 2004 for $355K and were lassoed into foreclosure seven years later! 

Now when we said this place was rural, we weren’t kidding. You’ll be getting along your little dogie for a spell finding the place.

View Larger Map

Now will someone give this realtard a copy of the Hardy novel? 

The DEALS continue all weekend and into next week!  Here is the absolute cheapest house for sale in all of Napa County, not a cottage, not 100 years old, not on a tiny lot, and it isn’t even pending!  And when you see this amazing DEAL, you’ll understand why!

1185 Deputy Dr, Pope Valley, CA 94567
$100,000

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 1
SQ. FT.: 1,316
$/SQ. FT.: $76
LOT SIZE: 0.35 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Residential, Detached, Single Family
STYLE: Traditional
STORIES: 1
VIEW: Forest/Woods
YEAR BUILT: 1970
COMMUNITY: Pope Valley
COUNTY: Napa
MLS#: 21127030
SOURCE: BAREIS
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 26 days

Nice home in Berryessa Estates north of Napa Valley and just off of Lake Berryessa. Plenty of potential as either a full time home or possibly a vacation home. Decks off of both sides of the home, 2 car attached garage, updated kitchen and a pool!

For only $100,000 you have to find the photo of the front of the house yourself, because at this low commission, the agent couldn’t be bothered.

Memo to self: when designing a house, try to put the fireplace against a front wall.  The lack of front windows discourages nosy neighbors! Also perfect for the irritable types who not only want the neighbor kids off the lawn, but don’t want to hear them playing out front.

Or do these neighbor kids have inordinate love of slingshots?  Well, this house will make it a real challenge!

Here’s the other side of that awesome front façade.  How inviting!  Next time you laugh at a McMansion with an overly-done entryway, remember what it looks like when you leave one out entirely.

And speaking of leaving things out, perhaps the listing agent should have considered doing so with these two particular photos.

Poor Mr. Zip.  The United States Postal Service put him out to pasture in 1986, when they introduced the ZIP+4 postal codes.  But he was a familiar sight in the 1960s, urging everyone to include the new ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) postal codes when sending mail.

Mr. Zip might not be around to nag you on addressing envelopes, because he’s in retirement.  Mr. Z writes to say he hopes this series will go on forever, because he can’t play Name That Code all the time.

Today we bring you yet another installment of all the Northern California cities on Forbes’ Most Expensive Zip Code list.  It features data crunched by local favorite Altos Research (and mangled by Forbes; you’d think after I’ve linked to them four different times and noted in each article that their data has a systematic error in every single entry, maybe somebody there would fix it, but NOOOOOOOO).  Anyway, here’s what you may have missed while writing code or hanging out on a sunny sidewalk waiting to collect a faceful of pepper spray.

Previous Entries in the Most Expensive Zip Code Series:

• Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, RBA Edition
• Next 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, Almost-RBA Edition
• Third Tier Realty: Zips 101-200 or I have a feeling we’re not in the RBA Anymore
• Fourth Tier Cul de Sac: Submillion in Suburbia

Now, we’ll take the Fifth!  Fifth Tier, that is; the Top Half of the Bottom 200!

Let’s see which cities can still scrape together a property median wishing price just under $850K.  Remember, we correct the mistakes as we find them, and we added the comparison to last year’s list.  That’s the kind of original work you’ll only find done by obsessive-compulsive bloggers who think zip codes are fascinating.  Well, Mr. Zip certainly agrees!

#304: San Mateo 94402

• Median Home Price: $849,292
• Median Price Change: NA
• Average Days On Market: 200 114
• Inventory: 114 81
• Rank in 2010: 236 (-68 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $13 Million

Now I am beginning to think that the people at Forbes were just making stuff up for that “Most Expensive Home” field.  $13 million.  In San Mateo.  The most expensive place I could find sold for $3.3 mil in June, including the gated entryway.  It’s just like what you get in mid-level condoplexes, including calling itself an ESTATE (complete with the CAPITAL LETTERS).

Ah, but that living room does look spacious enough to hold a very small charity ball.  More goodness from Mr. Zip after the break!

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What will it take to make the zip code series stop?  Lots and lots and lots of quality submissions!  So until you send in your best guest post EVEH, we’ll be running these wonderful lists and photos for the next few hundred Sundays or until we run out of data, by which time Forbes (if they’re still a going concern) will have the 2012 list ready.  But look on the bright side.  No more annoying maps like last year!

Today we look at all the Northern California entries in Forbes Most Expensive Zip Codes 2011: The Top 100 of the Bottom 400.

Previous entries in this year’s series:

• Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, RBA Edition
• Next 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, Almost-RBA Edition

Quick recap: Forbes messed up their data even worse than usual this year, plus many areas on last year’s list have completely disappeared without explanation.  We add in the comparison to last year’s rankings and find the “most expensive” house (if it’s findable) that Forbes mentions for each entry.  While Forbes doesn’t seem that interested in hearing from their readers (registration is required), Altos Research, who did the number-crunching, loves talking data.  They’ve responded to a couple of my concerns here.

Here we go, numbers 101-200, which are now under the Million and a Half Median!  How Low do we have to go to sink under a million?  Remember, this is the Third Tier, so Real Bay Area (RBA) bragging rights are gone (except for some exceptions).

#106: Alamo 94507

• Median Home Price: $1,396,000
• Median Price Change: -7.8% ⇓
• Average Days On Market: 200 134
• Inventory: 134 102
• Rank in 2010: #101 (-5 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $11.8 Million (322 Lark Lane)

This high-end (for the East Bay) location south of Walnut Creek is stuck in atop the third tier right where it belongs, just a few spots above Newport Beach.  This luxury home that looks more like an administration building kind of says it all.  Free architectural clue: It’s the windows that make this place a façade fail.

A new $13.8 million property has come on the market since the Forbes article ran, and it has a more traditional (and attractive) look, in the classic “Let’s build a French country estate in Contra Costa County” style.

Plenty more to enjoy after the break!  In fact, we promise the very next one is a Burbed favorite, so click on through.

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In a previous article, we profiled the Northern California cities that hit the Forbes 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes out of 500 of those suckahs.  But we only care about the ones where the weather is nice, sushi is abundant, and you can get stock options without being the CEO.

These are the Zips that didn’t make the Top 50.  Forbes didn’t think they were worthy of home listing photos, so I had to dig them up myself.  And let’s remind Forbes about their messing up their detail data, what with every single DOM value set to 200.

Should any of these zips be allowed in the RBA?

#51: Los Altos 94024

• Median Home Price: $1,895,000
• Median Price Change: -36.3% ⇓
• Average Days On Market: 200 119
• Inventory: 119 43
• Rank in 2010: #18 (-33 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $5.5 Million (12445 Hilltop Rd)

Forbes avoided last year’s screwup with this zip by simply not admitting Los Altos Hills exists in 94024 this year.  Last year LA and LAH had identical data and ranks.  This year they screwed up by picking a property in Los Altos Hills as most expensive.  The most expensive I can find in Los Altos proper is this one (whose photo appears at right) at $4M.

And there’s plenty more, after the break!

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Dynamic features include a database property search with full color photographs of listings in Napa County.

Listing Details
Price: $440,000 (Sale) Property Type: Single Family
MLS#: 20727923 Year Built: 1941
Street Address: 2978 Kilburn Ave Lot Sq. Ft.: 5,227 (approx.)
City: Napa Acreage: 0.120 (approx.)
County: Napa Bldg Sq. Ft.: 765 (approx.)
Bedrooms: 2 2nd Unit on Lot: No
Bathrooms: 1 Status: Active
Partial Bathrooms: none
Comments
take advantage of the price for this nice house in napa.

Burbed doesn’t usually venture to Napa, but fortunately Burbed reader Cathy did and submitted this great find. Cathy had this to say:

Everyone loves cars, right? Right? Zoom zoom zoom!

Indeed. Everyone knows that cars and driving were invented in California – a reflection of our state’s innovative past. This house, located in the land where wine was invented, celebrates this past tradition. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes a national historic landmark – and let’s just say, they’re not making more of those!

Here’s an additional photo that the Realtor included:

For those non-Californians are too dull-witted to understand what’s being implied in this picture, here it is: “Psst, there’s room for parking for 3 more cars here.”

Thanks Cathy!