Designed by Alan Page and built on a nearly one-acre lot “in the heart of Lafayette’s sought–after Happy Valley,” the roughly 6,000-square-foot home at 22 Toledo Court boasts “elite craftsmanship, state-of-the-art technology, elegant lines and quality finishes throughout,” with an infinity-edge pool, outdoor fireplace and a covered loggia adjacent to its outdoor kitchen with a built-in barbeque, refrigerator and views of the surrounding hills.
Listed as a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” with a $6.595 million price tag in the second quarter of 2017, the brand new 5-bedroom home sold for $6.3 million that June.
And having returned to the market priced at $6.195 million this past April, the list price for 22 Toledo Court has just been reduced to $5.895 million, a sale at which would represent market depreciation of 6.4 percent for the luxury home over the past two years on an apples-to-apples basis (while the median sale price in Lafayette is up).
It would be interesting to see whether property prices at the edge of the urban-wild interface are being impacted by the last two year’s wildfire seasons.
An interesting question, tho it should be remembered that the fire losses are still a very small portion of the housing stock (15K out of…probably several million, depending on what definition you use); I think the influence is already being felt indirectly with the inability to obtain fire insurance, which impacts the ability to obtain financing; ‘course that’s kind of an “all or nothing” impact… at least at the household level.
This property itself seem to have pretty good defenses, with the wide unplanted areas on two sides and (what looks like) some kind of cement-fibre roof; the wooded area at the top is a weak link however.
Fire insurance is always available, it just might be cost prohibitive. Even if a homeowner can’t find fire insurance from a standard carrier, they can get it through the California FAIR Plan.
“The California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (“FAIR”) Plan was created in July 1968 following the 1960’s brush fires and riots”
Yes, thanks; I think my point remains valid, tho, that this will ultimately affect demand – or at least has the potential to do so – regardless of whether/not the “normal” factors that influence demand are altered by fire risk ( i.e. whether/not people actually think about it). And personally I’m dubious too many lenders would give a seven-figure loan on a property that was an assigned risk.
Also climate change generally. It gets hot here in the summer and summer is lasting longer and longer. I wonder if that deters some people.
SFRealist, compared to people who live where? It’s not like its getting cooler somewhere else.
It’s getting hotter everywhere. But compared with, say, the Berkeley hills or Marin, this place will have a much longer hotter summer. That might be an additional deterrent.
Lovely property.
Not so lovely house, though. Kind of looks like a standard faux-stone suburban mcmansion. With a little better taste, but pretty boring.
And all this yellow dry grass around… It can be SO hot in Lafayette! And boring too
Not sure how we got to wildland fire control. This house appears from satellite images to be in a low density suburban area, with access to a few hundred yards to the north on Happy Valley Drive and to the south Toledo Court/Drive. It’s a big one-off custom home in an area with a lot of other one-off, custom homes.
There is in many cases a premium for a brand-new never-lived-in home which is what the “Diamond 9 Trust” received when they bought the home in 2017. And now they have marked it down in the hopes of selling it.
My impression is that there is more variation in the pricing for one-off custom homes. Sellers could wait around for months and find someone who really wants it, or they could keep marking it down. It looks like a nice, consistently designed place with excellent finishes. I wouldn’t choose it, but I certainly appreciate the consistency more than many of the monochrome-old-lady-victorian-exterior, apple-store-interiors people lap up here in SF.
It was a good sale by the developer at $6.3mm back in 2017. Not sure if $1,000+psf is normal for Lafayette for less than an acre with a slope and no room for sports courts or outbuildings, but Redfin thinks it’s only worth 5.7 and change. That’s a lot of space, far from employment centers. No single family is really making good use of 6Ksf.
And yes, dad, I know “IT’S THE SAME HOUSE ON THE SAME LOT IT WAS TWO YEARS GO.” But it’s not “brand new” any more.
/s/ Perhaps we just celebrate an over-aggressive purchase of a new home by the current owners? Maybe they were Trump voters, or overseas buyers, anyone whose failure SF readers can feel righteous about… Let’s hope /s/
The problem with saying that there’s some idiosyncratic premium for this as a one-off custom home is that, as Brian M said, it looks just like a generic suburban McMansion built over and over again by a mass builder such as KB Homes. Places that are indistinguishable from this home’s facade can be found all over the place in Lamorida and San Ramon. Close-to-one-acre lots are not uncommon in this part of the East Bay.
I’m sure the finishes are nicer, but that fact doesn’t come across in the pictures attached to the listing.
Yet another one withdrawn without a sale.
UPDATE: The listing for 22 Toledo Court is once again active with a list price which has been reduced another $100K to $5.795 million, a sale at which would be 8.0 percent below its purchase price in 2017.
That’s a lot of plumbing! Two washing machines, two dishwashers, two bath tubs, four showers, seven toilets, and 12 sinks!
UPDATE: Once in a Lifetime Opportunity Fails to Fetch its 2017 Price