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.

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.

911 9TH Ave San Mateo, CA 94402

Price: $575,000

Last sale: 1/5/2006 for $999k

Loss if sold for asking: $424k or 42.4%

I first mentioned this home in the post about multifamily properties. Now it is down another $300k. This is another short sale. It is in a decent neighborhood near Central Park and you could rent out half of it so it might almost be worth it if you can secure financing.

Here is the math.  Suppose you put 20% down and finance 460k, which is still a conforming loan in San Mateo, then at 5% the mortgage is $2469 a month.  Then you need to add around $600 a month in property tax and another $70 to $100 in insurance.  If you have a tenant on one half of the property then you could collect rent of $1500.  Add in some tax deductions and this place is almost cheaper than renting.  Of course, there are utilities and maintenance costs, too.

900 SOUTH Rd Belmont, CA 94002

Price: $1,300,000

Something must be wrong when you try to sell a house that’s “70% finished”. Anyway, I looked up this property on PropertyShark and it showed that it is owned by “Ghafouri,Paymon & Velecia T “. The name Paymon sounded really familiar so I Googled him, and what do you know, he is a Realtor in Redwood City and I have been to his website before. It seems that he took out a construction loan in the amount of $760k in 2006 to build this big mansion in Belmont, but now the work isn’t being finished. Not sure what the story is there, but it sure seems funny to list a shell of a home for over $1 million.

590 Lisbon St Daly City, CA 94014

Price: $1,498,000

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $77,000 or 4.9%

Another apartment building up for sale, but this one is in Daly City.  It seems like more and more multifamily buildings are coming up for sale, but it is tough for investors to get a loan these days since a lot of banks have cut off funding to investors entirely.

316 LUX Ave South San Francisco, CA 94080

Price: $799,000

This is a fairly new  duplex and it is already a short sale.  The realtor that posted the listing seems  very fond of  spaces and caps:

T H I S I S A S H O R T S A L E. .. S U B J E C T T O L E N D E R A P P R O V A L. O C C U P I E D O N E U N I T A N D R E N T T H E N E X T U N I T F O R A D D E D I N C O M E. THIS DUPLEX WAS A L M O S T B R A N D N E W . 3 B D R M E A C H. AND F A M I L Y RM. 2.5 BA. E A C H U N I T. L A R G E B D R M S. I D E N T I C A L U N I T. 2 C A R G A R A G E. APPT. ONLY

3610 WOODSIDE Rd Woodside, CA 94062

Price: $11,900,000

Last sale: Nov 07, 2006 Sold $12,108,000

Loss if sold for asking: $208,000 or  1.7%

First of all, that overhead picture of the estate looks like it’s straight out of a fairytale.  It’s beautiful, and it’s probably the most expensive listing that I have found so far that has a last sale price that’s higher than the current listing price.  Since this home’s first listing the price has been cut 2.6 million, but I think it’s still way out of reach for mere mortals.   It should be interesting to see what it finally sells for.

2109 DUMBARTON Ave East Palo Alto, CA 94303

Price: $995,000

Last sale:

Last sale: Aug 01, 2003 Sold $1,000,000

Loss: $5000 or 0.5%

This 9 unit apartment building in East Palo Alto is selling for below its 2003 price.  The capitalization rate is almost 8% according to the owner.  Unfortunately investment property loans are still pretty expensive now and unless you would need more than $300k for this purchase to be a non-jumbo loan.  This could work out for some investor with a lot of cash and experience in property management.  The property’s location is not optimal since it is practically on the 101, and it is in East Palo Alto, which has a bad reputation.  Recently East Palo Alto has become more gentrified, and perhaps in 20 years or so it would catch up to Palo Alto and Menlo Park? Anyway, this has been on the market for over 4 months, and it could sit longer unless the Feds decide to help out the commercial real estate credit market.

3115 Canyon Rd Burlingame, CA 94010

Price: $1,599,000

Last sale:

Loss if sold for asking: $281000 or $15.8%

The listing for this home doesn’t show that it’s bank owned, but if you look up the county tax records it shows the address of the owner as 7255 BAYMEADOWS WAY, JACKSONVILLE, FL.  It also had a tax default last year.  If you search for that address, it shows that it’s Washington Mutual, which is now JP Morgan Chase.  Whoo hoo I guess?  It’s probably possible to negotiate this back to pre-2004 prices since WaMu’s REO portfolio is humongous.

19 WOODLEAF Ave Redwood City, CA 94061

Price: $2,150,000

Last sale: Jun 18, 2004 $2,249,000

Loss if sold for asking: $99,000 or 4.4%

This is a very nice looking house near where I live.  It is currently 4.4% below its 2004 price, but for that kind of money you can probably buy something in Atherton, Woodside, or even Hillsborough.