Home » Menlo Park » Recent Articles:

Off Market home in Menlo Park

Off Market home in Menlo Park

Ok, all my off market followers will find this home of great interest.  Off market properties are everywhere these days and you need a good agent who knows how to find them and get them for you.  I specialize in off market properties as I believe it shows we work hard for our clients and don’t just simply click on MLS listings to complete our work.  In this market, an agent needs to go much more than that to earn the commissions we do. So, I post them here on this blog or send them out via my twitter (twitter.com/luxuryreinsider) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/garykurtzluxuryrealestate).

Today’s off market is a wonder home in Menlo Park in the Allied Arts area.  It’s a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath home that is 3,123 square feet on a 7500 sf lot.  The main house is 2,538 sf and a nice guest house, which is currently set up as a media room, is almost 600sf.  The home has been updated with walnut floors, stone, tile and wonderful finishes.  There is a wine cellar, an in ground trampoline for the kids and generously sized rooms complete with a remodeled open kitchen.

The price is $3,495,000.

Call me if you are unrepresented and would like to see the home or know more about it at 650.543.1202.

Off Market Home in Menlo Park for Sale

Off Market Home in Menlo Park for Sale

Off market homes are as big as ever these days and it’s important that you as a buyer are aware of them from your agent.  I focus on a lot of off market opportunities for my clients so please let me know what you are looking for and I can find it.

A recent property for sale off market is a beautiful newly constructed in 2013 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home in the heart of Menlo Park.  The home has 1,925 square feet and has an open floor plan with hardwood floors, high ceilings, a beautiful chefs kitchen with marble counters, custom cabinets and large island.

Luxury real estate at an affordable price could be the tagline for this home as there are top quality materials and elements throughout the home. There are three bedrooms up, including the master, and one bedroom downstairs for guests and grandparents who don’t enjoy climbing stairs.  A fantastic great room and open kitchen highlight the downstairs floorplan.

Nice sized yard with cobblestone patio and fully landscaped perimeter.  2 car garage with lots of storage as well.

Asking price is $2,195,000 and will be sure to go fast like everything else in Menlo Park.  If you are not represented by a buyers agent and would like to see the home or get more information, call me at 650.543.1202 or shoot an email to me at gkurtz@apr.com.

 

San Mateo Country Real Estate Sales Up in 2012

January 2, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments

Menlo Park & Atherton Photos_0033Homes 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.

San Mateo County

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 4,646 5,130 10%
Average Price ($000) $932 $995 7%
Average DOM 68 49 -28%
Months of Inventory 0.2 0.1 -50%

Save Money, Refinance Now

Save Money, Refinance Now

Mortgage rates are at an all time low and home buyers are getting a great deal right now as some banks are even buying down the rate on purchase deals. I know you are busy, but even though you don’t plan on buying anytime soon, it’s still a great time to refinance. Banks are tight on getting the average person qualified for a loan, but if you can get thru the paperwork, it’s a great time to save money. How much money can you save?
Read Complete Story.

Off Market Home For Sale in Menlo Park

Off Market Home For Sale in Menlo Park

There is a nice home for sale that is off market and in the Sharon Park area of Menlo Park.  The house has been remodeled extensively and has 3,804 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths and is located on a single level.  The home was remodeled in 2010 and they have put in wonderful fixtures, decor, appliances and overall designer touches throughout.  It’s in the Los Lomitas school district and the price is $3,895,000.

Off market listings are very common these days and probably 30% of deals being completed in our area are off market. Off market homes are the secret talk of the town as the bigger agencies have more of them in hand than do the smaller brokerages.

If you are interested to know more about this listing or other off market listings and are not represented by an agent, please give me a call or send me an email and I can help you find homes before they hit the market.

 

Menlo Park Real Estate Prices Jump

Menlo Park Real Estate Prices Jump

Menlo Park

As reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, prices in Menlo Park are rising as inventory remains small.  The rest of the nation is tuning in on what is happening in our bubble of the world.

Here is an excerpt from the article which as published today.  Facebook Inc. (FB) (FB)’s Silicon Valley (MXWO0IT) hometown has a limited supply of real estate available for its newly minted millionaires as sellers await further price gains in a market buoyed by growing wealth from technology businesses.

Home listings in Menlo Park, California, a leafy town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of San Francisco, fell 9 percent in the year through April compared with the same time in 2011, data from MLS Listings Inc. show. The number of new properties coming to the market decreased for the eighth time in 12 months.

The initial public offering of the world’s biggest social network, which raised $16 billion on May 17, is contributing to surging real estate demand in Silicon Valley’s tech enclaves and bolstering values amid scarce inventory. The median price of a home sold in Menlo Park jumped 8.5 percent to $1.19 million in the first quarter, according to research firm DataQuick.

“The market was already hot, and now there’s more pent-up demand,” said Jim Harrison, chief executive officer of MLS Listings, a Sunnyvale, California-based publisher of home listings for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in the heart of the Valley. “Buyers are going nuts, but sellers are holding back.”

Facebook, which has fallen (FB) 22 percent since its IPO, is only one factor fueling wealth creation, said Michael Dreyfus, founder of Dreyfus Properties, a brokerage with offices in Menlo Park and the neighboring city of Palo Alto. Hiring at Apple Inc. and Google Inc., as well as law and finance firms, has yielded a “very broad-based and healthy” surge in real estate, he said on Bloomberg Television’s ’’Bottom Line’’ on May 23.

‘Savvy’ Sellers
A “savvy bunch of sellers” has purposely kept their homes off the market in desirable areas in anticipation of the IPO, Dreyfus said. Listings haven’t been this scarce at this time of year since 2005, when house prices neared peak values, said Theresa Dreike, an MLS Listings spokeswoman.

“With so many people looking and so few homes available, the market is squeezed and sellers can get whatever they want,” said Stephanie Seeger, 39. She and her husband bid $86,000 over the asking price to win a four-bedroom home with about 2,300 square feet (214 square meters) in Menlo Park’s Willows neighborhood. The $1.88 million purchase is scheduled to close today, she said.

Across the U.S., a scarcity of homes for sale is boosting property values, from foreclosure-stricken Florida and Arizona to more robust markets in Texas and coastal California. Home listings totaled 2.54 million in April, the lowest for the month since 2005, according to National Association of Realtors.

Waiting It Out
In hard-hit areas, people who owe more than their homes are worth, known as negative equity, are crimping supply by refusing to unload their property at a loss, said Stan Humphries, chief economist of Seattle-based real estate service Zillow Inc. Sellers in Silicon Valley, on the other hand, are motivated by maximizing price and can afford to wait as job growth and the economy improve, he said.

Home values in the U.S. should be “modestly stronger” by the end of the year, rising about 3 percent, Barclays Plc analysts in New York said in a May 23 note. All nine regions in a Federal Housing Finance Agency housing index showed price gains in March. The gauge climbed 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the biggest increase since November 2006.

“You’ve got a lot of people with negative equity who want to sell but can’t, and people in affluent areas choosing not to sell,” Humphries said in an interview. “A pattern of materially stronger demand is emerging, but there’s a big constraint on supply.”

Cupertino, Palo Alto
In Cupertino, home to Apple (AAPL) (AAPL), inventory this year through April fell 15 percent, and new listings dropped for the 10th time in 12 months, MLS Listings said. Prices climbed 2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to $1.1 million, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. In Facebook’s former home of Palo Alto, adjacent to Stanford University, new listings declined for the 11th month, and prices jumped 22 percent to $1.6 million.

Facebook announced in February 2011 that it would move to an empty Menlo Park office campus in a lease deal that was the area’s largest in 20 years. The 1 million-square-foot complex, dubbed 10 Hacker Way, was followed by a $250 million renovation that’s still under way. About 2,400 employees work there.

This article shows that luxury real estate is alive and well in the area.  Even thought the Facebook IPO has not gone as expected, many Facebookers cashed out some of their shares before the IPO and still made their money, while another group has to wait 6 months to sell, and hopefully the price will have rebounded by then.

 

Menlo Park Monthly Real Estate Sales Figures for October 2011

Menlo Park Monthly Real Estate Sales Figures for October 2011

The average sales price of a home in Menlo Park fell 7.8% for the month of October 2011 compared to October 2010.  The total number of sales for both periods were similar, which is good news, but the home prices were a little lower than expected.  The surprise number is that the average price per square foot rose, so that means people are paying less, but also for smaller homes.

All other numbers for the month look healthy for both buyers and sellers.  Luxury real estate in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Atherton is still in demand compared to the rest of the country and nothing to complain about.  See the attached short video for all the key statistics.

Menlo Park Real Estate Update – Statistics for September 2011

Menlo Park Real Estate Update – Statistics for September 2011

A short video that shows the important real estate statistics for Menlo Park sales figures for the month of September, 2011 compared to September 2010. This is a good indicator on how the real estate market for Menlo Park is doing and helps buyers and sellers determine timing for buying or listing a home for sale.

Central Menlo Leads Sales Volume By Large Margin in Menlo Park

August 30, 2011 Real Estate News No Comments

The Central Menlo area showed the most total sales volume by dollar amount compared to other areas of Menlo Park by quite a large margin. There was just over $122 million dollars in total sales for the last twelve month period. The results are based on 390 total sales for all of Menlo Park and 62 sales were posted in the Central Menlo area. Coming in second for amount of units sold was actually the east of 101 area of Menlo Park, however, the home sales prices are dramatically different than Central Menlo and the reason for the vast dollar amount difference. Luxury real estate sales are still strong as Central Menlo had an average sales price of just under two million dollars.

Area: Dollar Volume: Number of Sales
Central Menlo: $122,821,516: 62
County / Alameda Area: $67,163,500: 44
Allied Arts / Downtown: $50,725,625: 34
Willows / O’Conner Area: $47,499,890: 43
Menlo Oaks Area: $41,449,100: 21
Sharon Heights / Stanford: $35,012,600: 18
Middlefield to El Camino: $33,717,910: 28
County Area / Fair Oaks Ave: $24,399,875: 36
Flood Park Area: $24,246,275: 29
East of U.S. 101: $18,110,811: 61
Felton Gables: $9,250,000: 4
Alpine Road Area: $6,006,000: 6

High End Homes on Peninsula are selling.

High End Homes on Peninsula are selling.

In case you missed it, here is an excerpt from a recent article about the high end housing here on the Peninsula and how well it is selling.  Los Altos Hills  has had the big sale while Palo Alto is consistent and almost a sellers market.  Atherton and Menlo Park and moving along nicely with Atherton getting the high end sales.

My Contact Information

Gary Kurtz
949.565.5201
gkurtz@homgroup.com
BRE# 01710776

Kathy Kurtz
714.394.2676
kathyk213@aol.com
BRE# 01876966

HOM Sotheby's International Realty
1200 Newport Center Drive, # 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660

949.565.5201 (cell)
949.478.7769 (office)
650.796.5507 (Silicon Valley #)

Contact me now with any questions:
gkurtz@homgroup.com

Kurtz Real Estate Group




Follow Me On Twitter

Live, up to the minute tweets during broker tour and other live real estate events, plus news and information.


Searching For A Home?


Search All Listings Here

If you are in the market for a home anywhere in Southern or Northern California? Search our MLS Listings to find your dream home.

Then when you are ready to get more information or schedule a tour of your favorite homes, call me and I'll take care of the rest.

Real Estate Insider Video Show

Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

April 3, 2013

Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

We at Alain Pinel Realtors have been releasing high quality videos that give buyers a feel for different areas. Today, we released the Silicon Valley video. Take a look. If you are looking for luxury real estate all along the Peninsula and Silicon Valley in areas such as Los Altos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, […]

Palo Alto Real Estate Update

February 3, 2012

Palo Alto Real Estate Update

The numbers are strong for real estate in Palo Alto with this month’s sales figures.  Watch the video to see all key sales numbers for the month of January 2012 compared to January 2011.

Menlo Park Monthly Real Estate Sales Figures for October 2011

November 5, 2011

Menlo Park Monthly Real Estate Sales Figures for October 2011

The average sales price of a home in Menlo Park fell 7.8% for the month of October 2011 compared to October 2010.  The total number of sales for both periods were similar, which is good news, but the home prices were a little lower than expected.  The surprise number is that the average price per […]

Timely News

Pools and Waterfalls of the Wealthy

August 6, 2015

Pools and Waterfalls of the Wealthy

We all love to see how the wealthy spend their money.  Jets, fast cars, homes….but how about their pools and waterfalls?  This is even more fun to see as there is a big water shortage here in California, so it’s an even bigger status symbol than before as only the very wealthy can afford the […]

Off Market Listing in Pelican Hill – $12,500, 000

August 1, 2015

Off Market Listing in Pelican Hill – $12,500, 000

There is a new off market listing in Pelican Hill area of Newport Beach that is sure to get your mouth watering.  The home is 9200 square feet on a 22k sf lot with incredible views.  We have more photos and information, but the asking price is $12,500,000.  If you are a buyer and interested […]

Southern California vs Silicon Valley in battle for tech supremacy

July 27, 2015

Southern California vs Silicon Valley in battle for tech supremacy

Having worked in Silcon Valley for years and also being a native Southern Californian has me with my heart in two places.  So, when I see comparisons of SoCal vs Norcal and especially in the tech world, I get excited to see more movement down to Southern California as tech/startup world is very exciting. This […]

Prices Still Rising In Orange County

June 30, 2015

Prices Still Rising In Orange County

Prices continue to show gains for the areas of Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar, Newport Coast and Laguna Beach.  Most areas have surpassed their peak prices that occurred in around 2007.  Will prices continue to rise?  It seems the high end luxury homes have slowed a bit but the inventory still is at low levels. […]

Why So Many Chinese Buyers in Palo Alto and Along the Peninsula?

May 22, 2014

Why So Many Chinese Buyers in Palo Alto and Along the Peninsula?

Everybody reads about the large supply of Chinese buyers who are buying homes here along the Peninsula.  There are many agents, one prominent one who we all know and now has a plane to fly his Chinese buyers around, who target the Chinese buyers very heavily.  Buy, why are there so many Chinese buyers and […]