Steve Wozniak Home For Sale

Steve Wozniak’s once owned home is on the market for $4.395 million dollars in Los Gatos.  The Apple co-founder owned the home several years ago and it has  undergone changes since he lived there, but for Apple followers, it’s still the home of the Woz.

The home has 7,500 sf, 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and sits on 1.1 acres.  It’s wonderfully updated and shows like a home costing over 4 million dollars should. It has beautiful views, wraparound terraces, pool with waterfall, Koi Pond and much more.

Luxury real estate sales and listings are up in the SF Peninsula area and a home that has the history of being lived in by a former Apple co-founder will bring lots of interest.

If you are an un-represented buyer and need more information or would like to see the home, please give me a call.  I can be reached at 650.543.1202 or emailed at gkurtz@apr.com.  The home is listed by Art Sharif and I have spoken to him several times about the home and bringing my buyers to see it.

Billionaires Living In Palo Alto

The highly anticipated Forbes list of billionaires shows that an unusually high number of them own Palo Alto real estate.

Ten of those billionaires live there to be exact.  Palo Alto real estate has been surging all year, now with the list showing that 10 billionaires live there, I’m guessing even more people from around the world will want to check out the real estate market and see what it’s all about.

The highest ranking billionaire to live in Palo Alto is Larry Page of Google, whose net worth is estimated at 23 billion.  Not bad for a 39 year old guy who looks like he’s about 20.  I think he owns the entire top floor of the condos on Alma street, so that is one nice penthouse condo.

Mark Zuckerberg comes in at the second highest ranking billionaire to live in Palo Alto and has a net worth of $13.3 billion.  He bought the house from an agent at our company last year and it’s just a nice home in a nice area and he didn’t go crazy with a mega mansion.

Laurene Powell, wife of the late Steve Jobs, comes in next on the list of Palo Alto billionaires and holds a net worth of $10.7 billion.  They have lived in the house on Waverley Street for many years and recently completed a renovation after Steve’s death.

Seven other billionaires from the Forbes list own Palo Alto real estate that they call home and can be read by clicking on the link below.

Palo Alto real estate billionaires

I have met or worked with several of the billionaires on the list and know the on and off market listings in Palo Alto quite well.  If you are in need of an agent to buy or sell a home,  please don’t hesitate to contact me at 650.543.1202 or gkurtz@apr.com for a confidential conversation.

Atherton Real Estate owned by several of the Forbes Billionaires

The Forbes Billionaires list shows that the richest people in the United States call Silicon Valley home and several own real estate in Atherton.

Atherton real estate is owned by Eric Schmidt of Google, whose net worth is estimated at $8.2 billion,  Charles Schwab, financial broker,  at $4.3 billion, George Roberts of KKR at $4.1 billion and Meg Whitman of HP/ebay at $1.9 billion.  Charles Schwab’s home is listed by my office at Alain Pinel and can be seen if you are an interested buyer, please give me a call.  Meg Whitman is a neighbor of mine and I know her house is not currently on the market, but we’ll see how it goes at HP this year!

Atherton real estate is obviously a good investment as the smartest and the richest have put their money down in this prime area. For the complete list of billionaires and where they live, see the link below.

Forbes US Billionaires

I work with a lot of high end clients who want their privacy respected and are interested to buy and sell real estate in Atherton via “off market” transactions as well as on market.  If you are interested in buying or selling, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 650.543.1202 or gkurtz@apr.com.

Palo Alto Housing Inventory Lower Than You Think It Is

It’s the end of February, the weather is a bit warmer and all is well in Palo Alto.  All except the housing inventory as the numbers remain unseasonably low.  Broker tour for the city of Palo Alto is on Friday, so that means most agents put their new listings on MLS by early Thursday so their new listing can make it on the Friday broker sheet.  As of today, there are 29 homes for sale in all of Palo Alto, and a total of 8 condo’s.  The average number of sales in a month for Palo Alto is somewhere in the 40’s, depending upon the month.  Knowing that 5 of the 29 have been on the market quite a while and probably not an easy sale, this means that all buyers are after about 24 homes.  But, the real number to look at is to take the inventory of 29 homes and separate them out by price range.  You have 8 homes in the 3 million plus range, 8 in the 2-3 million range, 10 in the 1-2 million dollar range and 3 under a million.

The price range is the true identified of what is out there as most buyers fit into only one of the price ranges.  For example, if you are looking for a home over three million, then you don’t really care to see the homes in the 1-2 range so your inventory is really only the 8 in your range.  So, housing inventory is a very personal number that is always a subset of the big number all the agents talk about.  For most buyers, there are really approximately 8 homes in the Palo Alto housing inventory that they really care about.  This shortage of housing inventory is why prices are going up as I know there are more than 8 buyers out there so it tends to create the situation where a buyer just wants to buy a house and they pick one of the 8 they see as the inventory doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

So, until more people decide to sell, this housing inventory number is much smaller than you think it is.

Los Altos Hills Real Estate Highest Price in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County real estate showed gains across the board in numbers very similar to San Mateo County.  The key number to note is that the average price of a home was up in 2012 by 12% to an average of $839,000.  The biggest jump in prices came from the city of Monte Sereno where home prices were up 18% to an average of $2.031,000.  Los Altos Hills took the prize for highest average sale price with a whopping $3,077,000.

Menlo Park Real Estate Prices Up, Inventory Down.

Menlo Park real estate figures were also up for the year 2012 compared to 2011 with a healthy 12% rise in prices taking the average price of a Menlo Park home to $1,459,000.  The big issue is the inventory levels, which are at very low numbers and difficult to keep the overall real estate sales numbers at a healthy pace.  The spring selling season should be a quiet one as there just isn’t enough homes to sell, but there are a lot of buyers so expect prices to keep rising.

Atherton Luxury Real Estate Prices on The Rise

Home sales and prices of Atherton real estate took a healthy jump for the year 2012 at a slightly above average 12 percent.  Atherton real estate has one of the highest average prices in the country at just over $4.5 million dollars.  So far in 2013, we are seeing a surge in mega priced homes that will be hitting the market soon in the over 50 million dollar range.  Atherton real estate is held by many a VC, CEO and tech giant who might be living behind those closed gates leading to properties well over one acre.

Woodside Real Estate Down, All Others Up

Woodside real estate figures were the only blip on the charts with negative numbers while all other areas of San Mateo County showed gains in real estate prices and sales numbers. Woodside has been stagnant except for a 100 million dollar sale by a Japanese businessman. The huge off market number did not affect the charts as the sale happened off MLS. San Mateo county real estate prices were at a healthy 10% rise across the board.

Microsoft’s Paul Allen Buys in Atherton

San Francisco 49ers fans have a new rival in town – Paul Allen.  Yes, the Seattle Seahawks owner has purchased a 27 million dollar mansion here in Atherton.  The home was sold to him by an agent in our Menlo Park office and despite being  a enemy on the football field, Paul Allen will be welcomed to the area.  With all the business happening here in the Silicon Valley, do you blame him? It was evident he would come after his Vulcan Capital announced the opening of their Palo Alto office to continue their expansion into the internet and technology sectors.

San Mateo Country Real Estate Sales Up in 2012

Homes sales in San Mateo County took a decent jump in 2012 with the number of sales up 10% for the entire county and the average price was up 7% to almost $995,000.  It’s amazing to think that it’s almost a million dollars to buy an average home anywhere in San Mateo country.