Today’s fistful of awesome in Alum Rock is brought to you by Burbed reader Tracy Tea House. Thanks very much for this foothill find!

15865 East Alta Vista Way
San Jose – East Valley, CA 95127
$499,000

3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 partial bath, 1,570 square feet, Single Family
Lot Size: 15,794 Sq. Ft.
Year Built: 1950
Days on ZipRealty: 34
Listed: 08/09/12
Price/sq ft: $318
Estimated Monthly Payment: $1,737
Neighborhood: East Foothills
School District: Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, East Side Union High School District
Source: MLSListings Inc.
MLS #: 81229860
Views: 61
Popularity: 8
Walk Score®: 9

Large yard w/deck & view of downtown SJ & Silicon Valley — marvelous! Newly improved driveway. Home is in move-in condition. Bonus room could be 3rd bedroom. Shows well. Level site on lot. Quiet residential hillside neighborhood is minutes away from shopping & parks. Not a through street — EAST Alta Vista Way has only a few (somewhat enormous) houses on it. Enjoy the view!

And here’s why Tracy chose this house out of thousands just for you!

Near a few enormous houses.  Truly poor photography. Value fail, great list copy.

What are you talking about?  This is great photography!  Do you have any idea how hard a photographer has to work to compose images like these?  Anyone can take pictures of a house, but this?  This transcends the artform by questioning its purpose.

For example, is the front of that fireplace actually carpeted?  Or is it a ginormous piece of hard candy?  Only a truly gifted photographer could make you wonder like that.

And instant equity galore!  Just check out the price history!  In no time flat the market’s going to heat up to eleven and every property price in this county will double in eleven minutes.  Yes, you read it here first.  The Real Bay Area is back, it’s booming, and it’s bettuh than evuh!

There are a number of ways to measure whether a market is favoring buyers or sellers.  Right now, it’s Spring selling season, and the buyers are definitely out there.  It’s a challenging time to buy, because there’s much less for sale.  So is it really a sellers’ market, or are the sellers waiting until prices go up even more?

Today’s find from Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer shows that even an unloved listing will find a suitor in this market.  This home went pending last week after a price reduction, and the agent promptly pulled the photos down.  But that didn’t stop us from checking every real estate site until we found them for you.  Today’s I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-violating-their-MLS-contract site is ZipRealty!

179 HAMWOOD TER
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043
Listed for $849,999, reduced from $869,000

3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom, 0.0 partial bath, 1,612 square feet, Single Family

Lot Size: 1,742

Year Built: 2007

Neighborhood: North Whisman

School District: Mountain View Whisman Elementary School District, Mountain View-Los Altos Union School District

FIPS: 06085

APN: 160-81-013

Source: Public Records
Walk Score^®: 43

This is a Single Family home located at 179 HAMWOOD TER, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA. 179 HAMWOOD TER has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 full bathrooms, 0.0 partial bathrooms, and approximately 1612 square feet. The property has a lot size of 1742 square feet and was built in 2007.

We found the photos, but there’s no listing copy, just boilerplate assembled by a computer.  Although several living, breathing Real Estate Professionals could have come up with “has 3.5 full bathrooms, 0.0 partial bathrooms.”

The reason PG sent in this home (other than this excellent photo of the spacious deck) is that the house previously sold near the peak of the bubble market.  2008 was post-peak for most areas except the Special parts.  We’d have to look at the other first-time sales in this development to determine if this was as rich as it got.

Sold on June 18, 2008 for $820k and it is now on the market for $869k. Anybody thinks it has gone up $49k since 4 years ago? Or is it just in hope of breaking even after commission?

You mean It was on the market for $869K!  At the reduced price the FBs won’t break even, unless they had a pet agent who would sell the house for free.

Even the homes that weren’t selling are now selling.  And this one is full of location win.

Close to freeway, tasty street name, conveniently located steps from historic Superfund sites, what more could anyone ask for?

Nothing is better than this street number for your next residence!  Thanks very much to Burbed reader sonarrat for this find in beautiful Hayward.

0 Chronicle
Hayward, CA 94542
$80,000

BEDS: –
BATHS: –
SQ. FT.: –
LOT SIZE: 5,800 Sq. Ft.
TYPE: Lots & Land
COMMUNITY: Hayward Hills
COUNTY: Alameda
MLS#: 40534298
SOURCE: EBRD
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 204 days

Located high in the Hayward Hills. Non Tract area to build your home. Need more land? Home next door which is part of the Trust may be purchased for addtional money to live in while you build your home.

No photo, no map, no bedrooms, no bathrooms, not even a house number.  Sheesh.  For some reason ZipRealty was able to locate the street when Redfin failed.

Here’s where this mysterious Chronicle is, right around the corner from Tribune and Call! 

What’s the name of this Non Tract area, Dead Tree Terrace? Fishwrap Farms? 20th Century Media Meadows?  And where’s the “addtional money to live in”?

Recently we ran a rather unusual house that would make a great West Coast toehold for the White Castle burger chain.  Yes, it was an actual fracking CASTLE in the back of an otherwise normal home in Los Altos. Burbed reader Tracy is crazy for castles, and has been deploying the trebuchet to hurl several into the inbox.  Here’s another one if you can’t wait until April for Season 2 of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Unfortunately, this castle, like so many homes built on fantasies and empty treasure chests, was taken off-market.  So we’ll do our best to get the information to you, no matter how many real estate sites we have to scour to find it!

81 PUFFIN LN,
Watsonville, CA 95076
$1,795,000, delisted on 12/12/2011
Originally listed for $1,895,000

Beds: 6
Baths: 4
Sqft: 2,864
Lot: 9,146 sq ft / 0.21 acres
Type: Single Family
Year built: 1971
Last sold: September 22 1999 for $353,500

Beautiful ocean views, convenient beach access, private parking front and rear, quality remodel, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, custom home in Pajaro Dunes – Turnkey! Remodeled kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, roof, siding, windows, appliances. Pajaro Dunes is perhaps Northern California’s best kept secret! To live here or just to visit is an experience to be treasured. Come see for yourself!

We’ve provided all 9 photos, because most of the other sites took them down when the listing got yanked.  Thank heavens for ZipRealty!  And we used Zillow to fill in all those missing pieces, like whether the castle actually had any rooms and was built after the Year 0.  Redfin provided the neighborhood plot layout at the bottom of this post.  Finally, this expired agent page provided the listing copy above.

The very first thing you’ll notice looking at the front of the house is that there isn’t any garage.  And that’s a good thing!  If you’re the kind of person who wants to live in a castle, you don’t want any newfangled technology such as horseless carriages and wireless music using airwaves.  A six bedroom house means you can keep your own horn section to play flourishes when you enter each room.  And really, nobody should be waving except your courtiers.

So the plastic furniture really has to go.  Just set up some trestle tables and benches and you’ll be ready to serve up the wild boars.

I tell you, it’s being able to build a castle out of a 1971 tract house that makes this country great, even if said castle would be more appropriate on its lonesome on ten acres in Inverness, rather than on a 9000 square foot lot right next to traditional beach homes.

America, F*** YEAH!  Although the tennis courts ought to be replaced with a jousting pavilion, and the flag with one from, say, 971.