Purchased for $8.5 million in June of 2016, the “sumptuous” Palo Alto home at 1117 Hamilton Street, which measures 3,376 square feet, sits on a prestigious 10,000-square-foot Crescent Park parcel, and features “exquisite architectural and interior design, exotically-sourced materials, hand-crafted finishes, and elegant appointments throughout,” with five bedroom suites and a two-car garage, returned to the market listed for $8.95 million in September of 2017.
Reduced (twice) and relisted for $6.988 million in September of 2018, 1117 Hamilton Avenue finally re-sold for $6.65 million at the end of 2018, which was officially “within 5 percent of asking!” according to all industry stats but down 21.8 percent ($1.85 million) on an apples-to-apples basis from the second quarter of 2016.
And having returned to the market priced at $6.988 million last month, a sale at which would represent total appreciation of 5.1 percent for the “Mediterranean masterpiece” since the end of 2018, 1117 Hamilton Street remains listed for sale.
If you think you know the market in Palo Alto, now’s the time to tell. The widely misunderstood Case-Shiller index for Bay Area (“San Francisco”) home values is up 29.6 percent over the same period of time.
It may be true, in one form or another, that “You can’t move Sand Hill Road,” but many people working in venture capital can. Many parts of that job can be done remotely, there’s no reason to have to live in Palo Alto and pay elevated housing costs and absurd commissions to real estate salespeople.
Ironic since for years VCs (who are by and large just idiots who won lotteries) insisted that absolutely everything they funded had to move to the Bay Area, even though they could have been done just as well in Poughkeepsie or Strasbourg or wherever they founders had been located prior.
Places like Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos got hit really hard this time. Remote/hybrid is here to stay, but might not be on as large a scale as I initially thought….Lots of companies, especially those small to mid size, will eventually be back to the pre-covid..
Wouldn’t count on that. Tesla just moved HQ from PA to Austin and theres going to be more where that came from. You can look at this house to see the issue for small to mid size companies. $7 mil for this is too rich for most small company workers or even execs.
No. Because “got hit really hard this time” has zilch to do with the story arc of this property. The big loss occurred in 2018, did it not? This time would seem to be angling for a gain.
Check out the satellite view of this home. Looks like a series of additions over the years, and not a cohesive home. Poor use of an oversized lot. The ceilings are low.
2k per foot sounds about right.
Moving Tesla to Texas is an ungrateful move. California provided the company with skilled employees and all manner of things. Some people would say he is an ungrateful brat but I could not possibly comment.
Isn’t everything that sells in Palo Alto a teardown? I am surprised the realtors don’t just pre-emptively tear down everything and sell it as bare ground.
UPDATE: Prestigious Palo Alto Home Reduced, Now Listed for a(nother) Loss