Built as a guest house for the founder of 24 Hours Fitness, who owns the larger 13,757-square-foot home next door, the 8,064-square-foot pad at 3941 Happy Valley Road is now on the market for $13.5 million in Lafayette.
Sitting on 2.3 acres and sited around a pool with two spas, a grotto with a rooftop fire pit and a poolside lanai with outdoor kitchen, the guest house features an open floor plan, multiple great rooms which open to the pool, and a tiered theater with stage.
While currently only outfitted with two bedrooms and four and a half baths, the home’s massive second floor gym is wired, plumbed and configured for its conversion into three more bedrooms and baths.
Or you could simply buy the six-bedroom main home next door, which hasn’t officially been priced but is being offered as an opportunity to maintain the existing compound and shared yard, as well.
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Who wants to pay this kind of money to live in Lafayette? Go buy a 3 acre estate in Woodside for this kind of money?
The best part about living in Woodside, or any of those towns, is the proximity to the Valley. Beyond that, they’re mostly unremarkable towns of wealth, indistinguishable from countless other super wealthy towns across America. Including Lafayette. So if you don’t work in the Valley, does it really matter if you like in one rich town or another? It’s not like Woodside is some architectural treasure trove.
That said, I’m sure this wont sell anywhere near 13.5.
Me, that’s who!
That would be an even $1,000,000 per year property tax in deep blue Hartford CT.
So $1mm/$13.5mm is 7.4%. Is it correct that property owners in Hartford pay 7.4% property tax rates?
Close. It’s actually 6.8 percent, the remainder is a rounding error.
Hartford’s mill rate is 74.29 or 7.429%. The first time I heard about this I couldn’t believe it. I kept looking for other sources.
That’s what will happen if Prop 13 goes. Your million dollar SF condo will be $74,000 in tax per year. But of course it will no longer be worth 1mm, so maybe the tax will wind up being a lot less.
Looks like you can buy a nice mansion in Hartford for 600k, with taxes more than $43k a year.
We stand corrected. See: Current Real Property Mill Rate is: 74.29 (versus a general reference to a 68.34 mill rate).
But then you have to live in Hartford, a city hit its peak about 100 years ago. The best thing I can say about the town is that it is between Boston and New York.
I’m pretty sure the assessed value is only 70% of fair market value, so taxes here would be $700K at the 74 mill rate. Still a lot higher than CA rates.
Not a valid comparison. Houses are much cheaper in Hartford. This house, at 8K square feet, would cost at most $1.5 million – maybe a lot less. RE taxes in Hartford are much higher than other CT cities for some odd reason, but the taxes would more likely be in the range of $50-100K, not $1M. And in most of the rest of the state the taxes would be half to a third of that.
Hmmm. It seems like an awkward split if sold separately. Then the main house won’t have access to the pool area right next to it? I bet the problem/goal is trying to get a peninsula price in the east bay. 30M+ for this in Woodside yes but in Lafayette??
Also the interior looks like it’s in good shape (unused?) but in a very dated style. When was this built?
[Editor’s Note: Back in 2012.]
Woodside is more expensive due to its proximity to the Silicon Valley but overall Lafayette is just as desirable and one of the most underrated Bay Area Suburbs. Better weather, small town rural feel but with quick BART access to SF, Oakland, and Berkeley.
Lafayette is a very lovely community but I think the high end market speaks for itself on relative ‘desirability’. The traffic on the Bay bridge is simply awful and for people at this price point Bart is not a real option (for work maybe) to access cultural institutions and fine dining the city.
Different weather. Not better.
If your money is not in tech (like the sellers) and you don’t have to be in the Peninsula, East Bay is definitely a place with equally nice weather and landscape and where your money could go farther. Sufficient cultural and gastronomic attractions in Berkeley and Oakland. I doubt this will command Woodside prices.
Hard to imagine this getting sold in two pieces. The build looks very high quality and well thought out. I think people build these places with the idea that the imagined lifestyle will come along with it. I just see a big vacant home that might get used to its potential a few times a year.
Almost like they put the guest house out as a feeler to see where they can go with the whole place.
My bet is they will probably end up more like a Steph Curry Walnut Creek experience with price coming down a bit in time after going from Oakland to Walnut Creek to the new bigger digs in Alamo I believe.
So very beige. Do the bathrooms come with hand dryers and naked middle aged men who forgot their towels standing under them?
$13M is a lot of money to pay to live in someone’s back yard. Especially in Lafayette.
Yes, I honestly don’t see this selling in 2 pieces.
The Hugh Hefner pool cave is a party favorite. Do neighbors from the big house get to come visit??
Do you suppose the bathrooms all have lockers that have been jimmied?
Is the point of this to prompt buyers for the whole property without disclosing an asking price?
13M asking to be just a few steps away from (bigger) neighbor? I don’t think so… I do LOVE Lafayette though!
I thought I remembered seeing the whole compound on sfgate, and now they’ve re-run the article. $25M for the whole estate seems like a reasonable deal.