Want to be a real estate mover and shaker? Start today by buying this property that features 2, yes (2) lots!  Think of all the ways you could take advantage of this amazing zoning opportunity.  Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for sending us this salubrious spread in Santa Clara!

2710 PRUNERIDGE Ave
Santa Clara, CA 95051
$1,575,000

4 Beds 
3 Baths 
2,254 Sq. Ft.
$699 / Sq. Ft.
Built: 1961 
Lot Size: 10,270 Sq. Ft. 
On Redfin: 6 days
Status: Active
Property Type
Detached Single Family
Stories: 1
Community: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81300520
Style: Ranch
View: Neighborhood
County: Santa Clara

(2)Lots for Sale With Building Plans for (2)Custom Homes. (Sold Together) Lot #1 APN 294-32-041: 4Br/5Ba, 2 Story Custom Home:3,454s. f. with (2)Car Garage. Lot Size: 8,614s. f. Cupertino Schools!! Lot #2 APN294-32-042: 4Br/5Ba, 2 Story Custom Home: 3,243s. f. with (2)Car Garage. Lot Size: 8,002s. f. Santa Clara Schools. (Lot Lines Adjusted per S. F. )Existing 4Br/3Ba Home Encroaches on New Property Line.

Wow, was that listing copy written by an attorney who doesn’t want anyone to notice the details? Or perhaps a claustrophobic, because whoever typed that in is afraid of spaces.  Now let’s have a good look at this opportunity with an existing 52 year old house that encroaches on New Property Line.

The red line appears to be for Lot #1, the bigger 8614 sf parcel. As you can see it cuts through the east side of the existing house, but fortunately, it did not bring the cooties of Santa Clara Schools all the way to the front door.

Yes, we hope you noticed that Lot #1 is Cupertino Schools and Lot #2 isn’t.  But wait! There’s more!

See those little words in the driveway?  Yes, technically your driveway is an actual city street that ends a few feet before the back fence.  Here’s another look at the neighborhood.

So not only do you have one house with several inches on the other lotline, you also have a named city street taking up most of it.

How are you going to design your way out of this configuration?  We assume one of the lots boasts a Portal to Hell for extra storage.

One other solution: Street Fair Every Day.  Now we’re talking Serious Opportunity!  Call up some of those Gourmet Food Trucks, have them kick back some of the take, and you’ll be paying this place off in no time. 

Bunus: Santa Clara Utilities for all!

We love real estate tools.  Maps are awesome.  Here’s a new one with the cute name Rich Blocks Poor Blocks that Burbed readers wahnny and Divasm both sent in this week when someone posted about it in Redfin Forums.  (No link, Redfin, until you resume trackbacks to our featured homes.  Neener neener.)

It’s a fairly good idea: take ACS income data for each official Census tract and show graphically how much they vary.  As they say on their main page, “See how much money people make in every neighborhood in every city in America.”  In theory you could use it to see how Special each part of the city is.  Here’s what it looks like when it’s working as the authors intended.

Each state uses its own scale, applying the color key to its own income range.  In the case of Illinois, above, the deep red, lowest income is under $23,120 and the deep green, highest income is over $106,503.  There appear to be 20 different segments in the color key, although we think there’s far too much green and not enough in the red, orange, and yellow. 

Since these are Google Map tools, you can zoom in and out to your heart’s delight, but you can only map one state at a time.As you can see in in the case of New Jersey, above, this tool isn’t that useful with metros that span multiple states.  Fortunately, that’s not an issue even in the furthest exurbs of the Bay Area.

No, the Bay area has different issues.  See what happens when we map the core RBA.

Too. Much. Dark. Green.

The California income scale ranges from $28,183.65 to $122,762.90.  We hope you’re beginning to see the problem: the top 5% income for all of California seems to apply to an awful lot of Census tracts in the RBA.  Or even places that are NOT in the RBA. Like this part of Santa Clara with the Oracle campus:

Contrast with an RBA tract we know is loaded: Los Altos Hills.

It’s the exact same shade of green, because the danged scale tops off far too early for the RBA.  According to this map, there is no difference between northeast Santa Clara and Los Altos Hills even though the latter’s median household income is 72% higher.

If a tract in the Triangle of Lost Equity can have median household income above 95% of California, Rich Blocks Poor Blocks in the Real Bay Area might as well be called Five Red Tracts of Suck Amidst A Sea of Deep Green Money.

Letters, oh we get letters… Here’s something to snuffle over from Burbed reader Kiki:

I would love to see some analysis on South Bay snout houses.  Why are there so many? It’s like mullets at Wal-Mart.

Do they sit on the market longer than other house styles? Is that a punishment? Do people actually like them or do they settle because of … ahem … “inventory” available?

I don’t think anyone has ever done a published, peer reviewed analysis on snout houses (because the people who would be interested in that sort of data sure don’t want to share it). I’m in Santa Clara – I know of one tract developed in the 1950s that’s almost ALL snout houses. It’s east of Lawrence & north of El Camino (yes, El Camino runs East-West in Santa Clara) and runs east to about Kiely. I’m not sure how far north the sprawl of snout goes but I can surf google earth later today.

thank you for your delightful daily snark. I love what you’re doing.

Given the location, location, location that Kiki provided, we went to Redfin and saw what was available.  Answer: nothing you can buy that’s particularly snoutside, but looking at recent sales yielded a winner from 1954 on our first click.

And in that same general area, no snout about it, different from the first one yet so much the same, and also from that excellent year of 1954.

Asnout these homes… yes, they do seem to be clustered in this area.  But we’ve featured this style of home before, and they aren’t all in West Central Santa Clara.

For example, here’s one we ran at the beginning of this year.  It’s all snout and nothing else to face.  It’s also not in Santa Clara, but in San Jose.  Such a delightful frontage, wonder why it took ten months to sell. No, it didn’t take ten months, it sold this October.  And also this June, so it’s a snout-flip.  (The June sale took 3 years to happen, and then sold for 1/3 less than the 2000 sale price.)  Wow, instant equity!

But there are all kinds of snout houses, just as there are all kinds of buyers and sellers.

F’rinstance, this lovely little luxury lulu in Milpitas (on the left, above) is better than the usual snout house, because it has bunus snout.  Contrariwise, on the right is a Mountain View maisonette, or as Burbed reader bmwman91 put it, a “single-nostril snout house.”

This delightful domicile à droit (that’s at right for the realtards following along from their home offices) looks like it could fit in a tract with any of the others up top, but this middle-class muzzle-mansion is in Atherton. Yes, it’s in the cheap-ass part that’s practically Redwood City, but it has an Atherton mailing address and more importantly, an Atherton property tax bill.

Let us know about snout houses you’ve seen, visited, or even lived in.  Or let us know about anything else you want, because it’s also time to get your schnozz into a Weekend Open Thread!

Update 10:07 PM: How could we forget this ode to snout housing from 1986? Put your hands together for David Byrne, who anticipated what endless expansion of exurbia would lead to.  This is a clip from True Stories.

Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer week continues, now featuring this fine find in superb Santa Clara! Who needs to drive all the way to San Francisco for overpriced property when you can do that in your own backyard?  But it’s hot, hot, HOT in the Valley too!  This is place not only went pending in five days, the listing photos were yanked down everywhere I looked.

Thank Woz for Movoto!

3086 Arthur Ct
Santa Clara, CA 95051 
$599,000

Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Size: 1,104 sqft
Type: Single Family House
Year Built: 1954
Lot Size: 5,148
Days on Movoto: 14 days
Neighborhood: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81210711
Status: Off Market
Views: 58

This contemporary-style hm on a cul-de-sac has ample natural lighting w/many windows&skylights*warm wood ceilings in the living rm&kitchen add to the ambiance*fully fencedyard(incl front)offers privacy&outdoor areas to use*you’ll appreciate the lower cost Santa Clara-owned utilities & award-winning Cupertino schools*convenient location for freeways,shopping&parks*Shows nicely too!

Poor Movoto.  Seems all they’re good for is for finding expired listings that everyone else dutifully removed when asked.  Burbed readers send in links to housing finds using Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, ZipRealty, even Realtor.com. 

It’s been a long, long time since a contribution linked to Movoto, and they once were the Official Burbed Listing Link.  Does anyone use them? This poor house only had 58 views, and 54 of them were probably from our putting today’s feature together.

Anyway, the listing copy demonstrates the usual proof that real estate agents are highly-esteemed professionals.  And while you’re trying to decipher that copy, enjoy these photos, after the break.  Someone associated with this house may be asking Movoto to take them down real soon now.

(more…)

Here’s a Santa Clara twofer for you, as we stay in The Mission City for a second day.  This is a fine submission from Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer that should convince you to stop renting and start owning before you are PRICED OUT FOREVER.

62 CLAREMONT Ave
Santa Clara, CA 95051
$750,000

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 2
SQ. FT.: 1,104
$/SQ. FT.: $679
LOT SIZE: 6,090 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 1
YEAR BUILT: 1956
COMMUNITY: Santa Clara
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81205842
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 26 days

Come see this wonderful home in Santa Clara with real pride of ownership. This is a move in ready home with nothing for you to do! Enjoy the updated kitchen, remodeled bathroom, hardwood floors under the carpet, a beautiful pool and spa and more. The neighborhood gets very little traffic and in the Cupertino School District (Eisenhower Elementary and Hyde Middle School).

Yeah.  Definitely nothing for you to do with this place.  Just be ready to move in, and you won’t ever need any coffee in the morning as this kitchen décor is going to wake you no matter how late you were up.

Also, the listing copy above mentions how little traffic the neighborhood gets, so maybe we should have a look at the neighborhood.

Perhaps it’s because the three-story townhouses that loom over the backyard are all populated by Neighborhood Watch enthusiasts.

More good news: this house appears to have some solar panels, and they are perfectly sited with a southern exposure.  They’re also perfectly sited not to overheat or generate excess capacity, thanks to those townhouses blocking the harmful winter UV rays.

And if you want to know more about that housing development over the back fence, Burbed has already paid them a couple of visits, both to a townhouse and the (genius!) detached single family house tucked into a high density complex.  That means your back fence neighbor is one of two dueling Lords of the Manor.

Looks like there’s lots of Real Pride of Ownership for everyone to share!

Happy Monday!  Let’s kick off the new workweek with another one of Burbed reader sonarrat’s discoveries in Santa Clara, also known as Real Gray Area.  And we’re not going to let a little thing like the seller pulling it off-market stop us from enjoying it, either!

2545 Amethyst Dr
Santa Clara, CA 95051
$550,000

Beds: 3
Baths: 1
Sqft: 897
Lot: 5,227 sq ft / 0.12 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 1955
Construction quality: 6.0
County: Santa Clara
Garage sqft: 273
Last remodel year: 1955
Legal description: TRACT 1309 GREEN VALE MANOR BOOK 50 PAGE1 10 PAGE2 13 LOT 438
Lot depth: 100
Lot width: 54
Neighborhood name: Santa Clara
Parcel #: 21622037
Per floor sqft: 897
Total rooms: 5
School district: Santa Clara Unified
# Stories: 1
Structure type: Other

Move-in condition ? Remodeled Kitchen & Bathroom ? New Appliances ? Newly refinished Hardwood Floors ? New Vinyl Floor in Kitchen & Bathroom ? Central Air Conditioner ? Santa Clara Schools ? Quiet Neighborhood with easy access to Expressways and 101

Just in case someone has a sad about these pictures still floating around Zillow and PMZ and gawd knows which other sites that don’t honor their MLS agreements, here are the other three pictures in the gallery. 

As you peruse them, pay careful attention to the artist’s use of light and texture, especially how certain themes carry from one photo to the next.

That’s a rather fancy-ass way to say despite this house looking abandoned (or at least like the owners can’t afford any living room furniture), somebody took the trouble to hang up curtains.

Burbed should have gone dark on Wednesday, January 18th, to join the SOPA protest.  And despite the presence of Google and Facebook and Twitter and everything that makes the Internet awesome here in our back yard, supposedly both our Senators are supporting this terrible bill.  I do hope you give them a piece of your mind.

Here’s what you had to wait a day to read due to our solidarity with the web-wide blackout.

What can you get in Silicon Valley for $579,803?

On Saturday, we heard from Greg Fielding on Case-Shiller tiers.  On Sunday, we saw some examples of just how much house qualified for the “upper” tier (the top third) in the counties that make up the SF index.  Now here’s what you could get if you bought a house that’s an easy commute distance to some major Silicon Valley employers.

1729 MORGAN St
Mountain View, CA 94043
$585,214, sold on 12/14/2011

3 BR/2 BA, 1,104 sf on a 5,300 sf lot

Built in 1955, and it shows, and what’s more, the house sold in a month above asking!  Doesn’t feature much other than its proximity to Google and LinkedIn, but every minute you don’t sit in traffic means you can enjoy more time in this spacious home.  Okay, it’s got hardwood floors, but still.

18770 PENDERGAST Ave
Cupertino, CA 95014
$591,700, sold on 12/29/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,134 sf on a 5,130 sf lot

This isn’t the least expensive sale in Cupertino within the last 3 months, but it is the least expensive house where they dared show a photo.  Who knows what kinds of problems lurk behind that fence?  Don’t complain.  It’s close to Apple.

Bring your decorator’s eye to this place, because the interior photos show you get a blank slate!  And of course it’s in Rancho Rinconada!

255 HEDGE Rd
Menlo Park, CA 94025
$625,000, sold on 11/2/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,190 sf on a 5,500 sf lot

Not only is it close to Facebook’s new location, it has Menlo Park schools!  And we had to jump into the $600s to even find this house, because there weren’t any SFH sales under $600K in Menlo Park or Palo Alto.

And for $625K, you get a house that backs up to US-101.  What do you think the upper tier means, Larry Ellison’s neighborhood?

3401 PARK Blvd
Palo Alto, CA 94306
$672,000, sold on 11/4/2011

2 BR/1 BA, 1,048 sf on a 5,500 sf lot

Speaking of Facebook, this is the least expensive SFH sale in Palo Alto and it isn’t too far from its current headquarters.  Better yet, it doesn’t back up to a freeway!  Instead, it backs up to CalTrain, but you can’t have everything.

But you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the sellers wanted $750K for this well-situated 66 year old house, and didn’t get it.

191 S PASTORIA Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
$608,000, sold on 11/9/2011

3 BR/1 BA, 1,100 sf on a 5,550 sf lot

Sorry we had to jump all the way to the $600s, but there’s a big gap above $570K for the last quarter’s sales in Sunnyvale.  This house is in a decent part of town, although you will get plenty of traffic from nearby Washington Park (which has a swimming pool) and the library a few blocks further away.  But it’s a good commute distance to Lockheed, Yahoo! and even Intel.  And in an even better position to see how good the homes thrown up right after WWII ended are wearing their years.

1774 BRIARWOOD Dr
Santa Clara, CA 95051
$585,000, sold on 11/18/2011

3 BR/2 BA, 1,212 sf on a 9,454 sf lot

The further east you travel, the cheaper the houses get.  Palo Alto costs more than Mountain View, which costs more than Sunnyvale, which in turn costs more than Santa Clara.

That’s why this house may not look much more palatial than any of the others above, but it comes on a lot almost twice the size.  It’s a good commute to Intel.  And one of the fun things about the Silicon Valley market that people outside the area don’t get is that most of the cost of any existing property is the land, not the house.

Don’t get too excited about this place.  It’s near the intersection of Lawrence and El Camino, and was sold “as is.”  I wouldn’t expect much from the neighborhood, either, as the agent bragged it was a “regular sale.”

In the future we’ll see what you can get for a million dollars, but don’t expect any gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

We’ve done with our whirlwind tour of the cheapest home in every Bay Area County (plus Santa Cruz).  But what about our favorite cities?  We can’t leave them without a big ol’ Burbed hug! 

Go West, young man, west of San Jose over to the delightful city of Santa Clara!  Don’t get lost, now, because when you go West in San Jose, that means taking 101 or 280 NORTH.  But don’t actually go North.  You’ll end up in Alviso, and we’re headed there another day.

Today: The Mission City!  Tomorrow: The World!  Muhahahaha!

1647 LAFAYETTE St, Santa Clara, CA 95050

BEDS: 2
BATHS: 1
SQ. FT.: 988
$/SQ. FT.: $302
LOT SIZE: 9,000 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STORIES: 1
YEAR BUILT: 1920
COMMUNITY: Santa Clara
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81144289
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Pending With Release
ON REDFIN: 47 days

Short Sale As Is with only one Lender. Nice floor plan with a large back yard. This charming home is a fixer upper, located in a central location of Santa Clara. Easy access to highways, Santa Clara University and within walking distance to the surrounding business places, shops & restaurants.

Don’t let that Pending status worry you, it’s Pending With Release!  That means you can slip in a non-contingent offer, even better if it’s all-cash.  But don’t plan on getting to see the inside until you take possession.  Here’s another view courtesy of Google.

And when the agent said centrally located, she wasn’t kidding!

Sold for $474K in 2003, that’s $175K in instant equity waiting for you!

A couple of years ago, Burbed featured this fine Rivermark house at a rather startling price.  Unfortunately, nobody took advantage of this amazing offer, and the home was withdrawn from MLS at the end of 2009.

Fortunately, this listing is back and better than EVEH!  Ladies and gentlemen, Burbed proudly presents Rivermark 2011, The Sequel, now in living… um, what?

4160 RIVERMARK Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA 95054
$1,145,000

BEDS: 5
BATHS: 3.5
SQ. FT.: 2,989
$/SQ. FT.: $383
LOT SIZE: 3,484 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Contemporary
STORIES: 2
VIEW: Neighborhood
YEAR BUILT: 2003
COMMUNITY: Santa Clara
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81145878
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 6 days

Rivermark Promenade II Arcade Floor Plan; Prime lot; 10 foot ceilings; Downstairs den/office can be used as a bedroom; The back studio suite (approx. 515 sq ft over the garage with a full bath & private entrance) could be rental unit/game room/home office/guest quarters; Stainless steel appliances, granite slab counter island & beautiful maple cabinets, Jacuzzi, pre-wired speakers, 3-Zone AC/Heat.

What an amazingly versatile property!  The downstairs den/office, as if it doesn’t already promise dual-use, can also be used as a bedroom!  The back studio suite could be a rental unit, or a game room, or a home office (wait, don’t you already have a den or bedroom that could be an office?  Too many choices!!!) or even guest quarters!  Imagine what that granite slab counter island could be used for?  Maybe a butcher shop or a pathologist’s table?  Why, the possibilities are endless!

It looks like the agent hired Alin Ciorta to photograph the exterior this time around.  Good move!  The previous cover shot said “Tract construction somewhere in California.”  This photo says “artistic impression representing the contradiction of permanence.”  Or maybe it says “Where’s the goddamned focus knob?”

Unfortunately, the rest of the 2009 pictures seem to have kicked the bit bucket, but as a consolation prize, the sellers have thrown in a completely unreadable floorplan.

Best of all, this house is at the same bargain 2009 price, minus the lucky 8s!  That’s because the sellers are passing on all the luck DIRECT TO YOU. 

If you had any doubt that the Bay Area was HOT, HOT, HOT, this should settle all doubts.  Rivermark is IT and you STILL aren’t good enough.

Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for this Santa Clara charmer.

 

248 KELLOGG Way, Santa Clara, CA 95051
$829,000

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 2
SQ. FT.: 1,388
$/SQ. FT.: $597
LOT SIZE: 6,710 Sq. Ft.
PROPERTY TYPE: Detached Single Family
STYLE: Ranch
STORIES: 1
YEAR BUILT: 1958
COMMUNITY: Santa Clara
COUNTY: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81143461
SOURCE: MLSListings
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 1 day
NEW LISTING (24 HOURS)

Bright and Beautiful Family Home with Magnificent Upgrades. Recently Remodeled Kitchen and Baths include Granite Counters and Extended Solid Wood Cabinets. Enlarged Shower in Master. Central A/C. Recessed Lighting. Energy Saving Dual Pane Windows. Hardwood Flooring. Ceiling Fans in Each Room. (6)Panel Doors. (2)Car Garage with Enlarged Driveway. Park-Like Backyard. Cupertino Schools!

This house might have Magnificent Upgrades, but you’re going to have to take this agent’s word for it.  There are no photos of the inside of the house or the Park-Like Backyard.

Instead, the photos are of the only thing that justifies spending eight hundred thousand dollars on a fifty year old house that’s probably smaller than this place’s spice rack.

This agent doesn’t want you accidentally buying the house with Santa Clara schools and Cupertino utilities, so you probably ought to overbid an extra $50K just to show your appreciation.

Any suggestions just what that is on the front lawn?  Is it a Chia shed?