12 ATHLONE Ct Menlo Park, CA 94025

Last sale: Nov 23, 2005 Sold $960,000
Loss if sold for asking: $161,000

It looks like the current owners bought this home back in 2005 with a $720k adjustable loan.  Their listing price will help them just break even.  Open house this weekend on September 12th and 13th from 1pm to 4pm.

81 RIDGE VIEW Dr Atherton, CA 94027

Price: $3,495,000

Last sale: Jun 17, 2008 Sold $4,100,000
Loss if sold for asking:$605,000 or 14.8%

It’s been a while since I featured a multimillion dollar home here.  This one is a pretty normal property in Atherton.  It seems that it’s been sold from one trust to another in the past couple decades so I’m sure the sellers aren’t really in trouble, but it seems that they want to get rid of the home in  a hurry because they already cut the price twice.  Lately there has been more and more listings in Atherton and most of these multimillion sales take a pretty long time.   I suspect the inventory will build up further.

131 BELMONT Ave Redwood City, CA 94061

Price: $499,000

Last sale: May 10, 2005 Sold $630,000

This tiny little cottage is still asking for half a million, which makes it over $800 per square foot. I wonder if the owner noticed that it’s NOT in Atherton. The funnier part about this is that it is available for rent for $950 a month. Let’s do some math here. Suppose you put 20% down and finance $400,000 at 5% over 30 years, you’d have to pay about $2150 for mortgage plus another $400 a month for tax. So, why would anyone buy this if they wanted to live here? It might help the seller to remove the fact that it’s for rent because it just emphasizes how ridiculous of a decision it is to buy this home. Additionally, the listing is probably keeping renters away because potential renters would fear that they can be kicked out once the home sells to some sucker.

Price: $940,500

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $159,500

This home certainly has an interesting facade.   It’s one of the larger single family homes in this area and it looks pretty well maintained. This was actually financed by a 80% adjustable loan.  Prime adjustable loans actually have pretty low rates right now, so these sellers may not really be in that much trouble.  The price per square foot is low for the area and perhaps it has a good chance of selling quickly.

Price: $965,000

Last sale: Nov 10, 2005 Sold $1,200,000
Loss if sold for asking: $235,000 or 19.6%
This former 1.2 million dollar property was first listed 4/2/2008. Then it went off market twice and just got relisted again. This was financed in 2005 by Countrywide with 2 adjustable loans.  One was $900,000 and the second was $180,000.  This means that the buyers actually put down 10% or $120,000.  That’s pretty amazing.  Sadly it is now a shortsale.  It is a bit close to the 92, but otherwise seems well maintained.

3904 HACIENDA St San Mateo, CA 94403

Price: $925,000

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $165,000 or 15.1%

This home is in a fairly nice area of San Mateo.  It is a short sale at about the median price per square foot.  The lot is also a fairly good size.

 8 Honeysuckle Ln SAN CARLOS, CA 94070

Price: $950,000

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $116,000 or 10.9%

I’ve driven by these condominiums many times.  They are on the top of the San Carlos hills so they all have a great view.    I’m not sure if they’re worth a million dollars, though.

721 PORTWALK Pl #2703 Redwood Shores, CA 94065

Price: $485,000

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $60,000 or 11%

Brand new listing that’s close to Oracle.  This might be good for a single person, but it is still overpriced since the median price per squarefoot in Redwood Shores is under $500 now.

1057 MADISON Ave Redwood City, CA 94061

Price: $825,000

Jul 14, 2000 Sold $950,000

Loss if sold for asking: $125,000 or 13.2%

This property actually has two units, but I’m pretty sure it’s not 11,350 square foot like the listing says.  If you read further into the listing it says that one unit is 1500 sqft and another is 1000 sqft.  That adds up to 2500 sqft and that would make this property listed around $330 per squarefoot.  Supposedly one of the units rents for $1900 a month, which is decent.  However, the property taxes on this home is already over $11,000 a year so that’s pretty brutal.   This is worth looking at since it’s a brand new listing, but whoever buys it should try to get the property tax reduced somehow.

2614 READ Ave Belmont, CA 94002

Price: $1,000,000

Last sale: Jul 24, 2006 Sold $1,233,000
Loss: $233,000 or 18.9%

This home is open for the next 3 Sundays from 1 to 4 pm.   This is a short sale on a good sized lot, but the price per square foot is still above average.  Before the last sale this one was sold for $241,000 in 1999, which means that the last last owner made nearly a million dollars.  No wonder so many people became obsessed with house flipping.  As I say about pretty much all short sales, potential buyers should just wait until it goes into foreclosure and get it for even less money.