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Archive for February, 2012

Big is back – article in the Wall Street Journal.  We see this to some degree in the Silicon Valley, Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Woodside area – but Most new estates are 10,000 to 30,000 square feet – with the average new estate probabbly just below 15,000 square feet (total square footage). Read more at the link above to hear the National perspective according to the WSJ.  There are restrictions – sometimes financial and sometimes governmental (zoning, etc) on house size.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203824904577213634206073476.html#slide/1

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Will the Facebook IPO have an effect on the luxury home market?

It’s already been happening.  Shares of Facebook and other non-public companies have been traded in the secondary market – so we have already seen buyers trading their Facebook shares (and employee/shareholders of other private companies) and buying real estate.  After a company goes public – there is a lockup period – where shares are “locked up” for a time period – many times 180 days.  They cannot sell them.

Multiple offers are the standard in Palo Alto, certain homes in Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Mountain View, and Menlo Park.  The upper end of the market – that being over $10 million is moving in Atherton.  In 2011 the largest sale in Atherton was over $50 million.  At least 8 properties priced over 10 million sold in addition to that big one in 2011.  Builders in Atherton are building $10 million, $20 million dollar homes to sell to this year (commonly called spec homes) – there will be about 8-10 homes for sale in Atherton priced over $10 million in the next few months.  There is a large market of homes that are for sale but not visible to the general public (off market).  You have to work with an agent connected to that off market network to find the “off market homes”.  The Los Altos Hills Luxury market has not been as strong as Atherton.   There was the $100 million sale in 2011 but other than that not a lot of estates have sold.  There are bargains in Los Altos Hills right now – and I would expect the Los Altos Hills Luxury Market to tighten in the next 6 months.

Woodside had 3 sales over 10 million in 2011.

The luxury market – Sellers and buyers want their privacy respected.  The expectation is that all players in the transaction will respect that.

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Another sold estate in Los Gatos.  This one sold for $11.5 million.  Good sign for the luxury market.  Main House was about 13,000 square feet and has great views.

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