Open Houses in Redwood City - past the $2M mark!

June 26th 2006.

Real estate in the Bay Area has gone nuts - are we insane in the membrane? We stopped in 2 open houses in the neighborhood this weekend - and I was absolutely stunned - $2.5M in Redwood City's Mt Carmel district. This has got to be the record for the highest priced house in this area. Granted the house is beautiful inside - everything's been redone, and it's actually got a fairly decent sized lot, but still. It's the principle of the thing. MLS listing here. This last sold in April 2005 for $1.15M in April 2005. Assuming the place before renovation was totally worthless, and it was worth 150K, sitting on land worth a million bucks, this means the property is now worth MORE than the land it sits on? Or does the land suddenly become worth more because there's a nice house on it?

Anyway - the other house wasn't quite as nice, but I can see how some of these guys are making huge bucks buying up a property and renovating it. A few weeks ago we saw a house where Sarah walked in the front door, and turned where she stood, looking around, and said "We'll take it!" Too bad that was before we saw the $3+ M price tag! Ouch. I think the price has come down a little - but still way, way, way out of our price range. I'm also convinced we've got to be at the absolute peak of the market right now. MLS for this dream house is here.

Oh well- I guess we'll be staying in our 2/1 for a while. I just had a new roof put on last year, and new Anderson windows - so I think we're set for a little while. We need some paint indoors and out, as well as some window coverings - blinds probably. We chucked our curtain rods. Oh well - maybe next weekend I'll get motivated to paint the window frames.

PS: Warren Buffet gave away 85% of his personal 40B fortune today. Most of it went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Where the heck was the sign up sheet???