Perched on a three-quarters of an acre overlooking Portola Valley and beyond, 990 La Mesa Drive offers an idyllic respite from Bay Area life. But respite in Portola Valley doesn’t come cheaply: This 3,985 square foot home is asking $3.995 million.
Built in 1966, the four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath main house is a preserved mid-century modern with features like cedar paneling, hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and sliding doors between rooms. The living room is split—with kitchen and dining area between each living area—creating a free flowing, open floor plan. Each living area has its own fireplace.
Japanese tea garden and guest house
The unique charm of this property is outside the main house, however.
Behind it, a patio and wrap-around deck overlook panoramic views. Then there’s the courtyard-like entrance, “reminiscent of a Japanese Tea Garden featuring majestic Blue Oak and Cedar trees,” according to the listing.
Indeed, the koi pond with footbridge and free-form pool would please most Japanophiles, as would the one bed, one bath guest house/tea room.
History
The home hasn’t been on market since 1976; it sold then for $302,000. Today, the list price is closer to $4 million. Tea sold separately.
Anna Marie Erwert writes from both the renter and new buyer perspective, having (finally) achieved both statuses. She focuses on national real estate trends, specializing in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. FollowAnna on Twitter: @AnnaMarieErwert
Pierre Garçon brings nine years of experience and 564 career receptions to a 49ers offense desperate for a No. 1 wide receiver.
A 2008 sixth-round draft pick out of Division III power Mount Union, Garçon started off with the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning for four seasons. An ensuing five-year tenure in Washington included a career-high 113 receptions in 2013 under then-coach Mike Shanahan and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
Reuniting with the younger Shanahan, the 49ers’ first-year coach, attracted the 31-year-old free agent of Haitian descent who was also an accomplished soccer player as a kid. We caught up with Garçon in training camp to learn more about him on and off the field.
You grew up in Florida, played college ball in the Midwest and had NFL stops in Indianapolis and Washington before here. What are your first impressions of California?
“I love California. Perfect weather. It’s a very laid-back environment. It’s not the hustle and grind of the New York, East Coast people. The atmosphere is cool and calm. It’s like an island vibe, to tell you the truth.”
Where is your offseason home?
“West Palm Beach, Florida. That’s home. I spend a lot of time with my family, because they don’t see me much during the football season. I catch up with my niece and nephews, hang out with my mom, sister. We have quality time.”
Pierre Garcon warms up during San Francisco 49ers practice at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)
Are you on the water?
“I’m close, say about five minutes, six minutes from the water. I don’t have an ocean view, but if I need to get there, I can.”
Have a boat?
“I do have a boat, yes.”
What kind?
“A nice boat. A good boat that if I want to go fishing, I go fishing; if I want to hang out, I hang out.”
Always been a water guy?
“I like the water, but not the sand. And I don’t like the salt in the water. But I love looking at the water, love being out there, love relaxing.”
The boat is a reward for, what, is this your 10th year?
“If you live in Florida and see water all the time, you’re going to want a boat because you want to be out on the water. It’s one of those things I’ve wanted to do. Everybody says, ‘Don’t do it,’ and I totally understand why.”
Why is that?
“It’s a lot of work, a lot of maintenance, and that’s 100 percent true.”
Dang, is it a yacht?
“I can’t say anything. It’s a boat we have fun at.”
Another area you’ve added work is a pizza business, SpinFire in Washington. Any plans to bring it to the Bay Area?
“It’s tough. Commercial real estate out here is very demanding and expensive. But if there’s a possibility, I’d love to. The restaurant business is tough, just like the boat.”
Pierre Garcon warms up during San Francisco 49ers practice at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)
You opened SpinFire how many years ago?
“One is 3½ years old. One is 2½ years old. They’re like my kids — I know the dates.”
Do you have kids?
“No kids. I’ve got six godkids and a bunch of nephews and one niece.”
Why did you get into the pizza business?
“It was in D.C. and I was playing there, so being a partner, I could help out with marketing. Getting into the restaurant business where we all think we want to go to. I had a good partner.”
How is it going without you back there now?
“It’s doing well. If I was there, it’d be a little bit better. But that’s the restaurant business. Things come up and you’ve got to adjust, keep the product going, keep the customers happy. It’s a lot of managing, and I’ve learned a lot and I’m happy about it.”
Are you thinking of being a businessman first and foremost after football?
“Definitely, I want to keep competing in something after football. That’s what makes us wake up, makes us happy, keeps us alive, keeps our blood flowing, just trying to win at something, even if it’s not physically, it’s something you’ve worked toward and you want to be successful at it when they say you can’t do it.”
Is it hard to change teams?
“It wasn’t too hard for me because of the familiarity with Kyle. I don’t have to move my family across the country. All I have to do is learn the playbook. It’s been easy for me, and not as complicated as for other guys who have more of a family and more of a style they played on different teams.”
We’ve compared you already to ex-49ers receiver Anquan Boldin, for your similar play and community service. What is your Helping Hands Foundation?
“Me and Anquan are from similar areas (in Florida) where we know there is a lot more talented people out there than me and him, but we somehow made it, and we want to help the younger kids that have talent to make it to where they deserve. There’s a lot of talent back where we were from that doesn’t make it out for unfortunate situations.
“If you want to open kids’ eyes to different things, that’s the biggest help you can give, showing kids there is more than the state of Florida. A lot of kids in Florida don’t know there is North Carolina, Ohio, Division III or Division II. They only know Florida, Florida State and Miami. It’s just helping kids in different ways, like knowledge, in that if football doesn’t work out (in Florida) there are 49 other states you can chase your dream.”
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Pierre Garcon (15) enjoys a laugh with Jeremy Kerley (17) Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017, at the team’s training camp in Santa Clara, California. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Do you still do a lot with Haiti?
“Yes, we definitely do a lot. We went back last year, when after one of our games, (Washington owner Daniel) Snyder sent us to Haiti to help us with medical relief stuff from our training room, like IVs and bandages and anything for a hospital in Haiti. It was really cool. My mom is there right now. We go back a lot, and it’s not far from West Palm Beach.”
What is Haiti like?
“It’s a life-changing experience, where you’d appreciate everything you have here. There’s a lot you can see in Haiti – from the absolute high and the absolute low, like ‘Wow, it’s 2017 and people are living like this?’ But there are a lot of hidden gems there, too, where you’d appreciate it and say, ‘Haiti is a lot nicer than we expected.’ I definitely recommend taking a trip and you’d appreciate what you have, the people in Haiti, and you’d appreciate being alive.”
You played soccer in high school, right?
“Yes, and travel team soccer, from middle school to probably 10th grade. I played a lot. I played it all – striker, sweeper. In high school, it was mostly defense and sweeper. Travel team, I played wherever they needed me. I love soccer. It’s getting more popular in America, and my nephews love playing soccer.”
There wasn’t much to love about the 49ers last season. How positive is this team’s state?
“We’re moving in the right direction. Everybody is buying into the scheme. Everybody wants to impress the new coaches and new GM. Everybody is competing for a job and working hard at it.”
Real estate markets traditionally suffer from the summertime blahs.
But the Silicon Valley market is not a normal market, particularly in Santa Clara County.
Yesterday’s monthly report from the CoreLogic real estate information service showed July sales down across the Bay Area, but up 13.0 percent in Santa Clara County from the year before. That was despite the fact that inventory in the county has been down about 30 percent from the same period in 2016. So how are sales increasing?
Andrew LePage, a research analyst for CoreLogic, guessed why: “Buyers are burning through whatever inventory there is, really fast.”
The median price of a single-family home in July was $1,097,000, a hair under the county’s all-time high of $1,100,000.
We spoke with Alex Seroff, an agent with DeLeon Realty in Palo Alto, who dug further into the numbers to flesh out the Santa Clara County phenomenon.
Drawing his figures from the Multiple Listing Service, Seroff looked at active listings, median prices for single family homes, and median prices per square foot in five cities: Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
“Typically you’d see less buyers on the market and prices would stay flatish over the summer,” he said. “But here we saw the median price go up in each of those five cities because the demand is just increasing.”
First, he computed the change in active listings from July to August (through Aug. 29): down 37 percent in Sunnyvale; down 8.0 percent in Mountain View; down 24 percent in Palo Alto; and down 20 percent in Los Altos. Los Altos Hills’s inventory actually went up 6 percent, though the statistical sample was tiny — the number of listings increased from 31 to 33.
“Inventory is now so low that trying to derive meaningful statistics is challenging,” Seroff said. “The sample sizes are so small.”
Still, it’s at least somewhat telling that the month-over-month prices in the five cities went up between July and August, when the market is typically flat.
Here are the August prices per square foot: Sunnyvale, up 7.0 percent month-over-month to $1,000; Mountain View, up 1.6 percent to $1,081; Palo Alto, up 5.8 percent to $1,528; Los Altos, up 4 percent to $1,293; and Los Altos Hills, up 8.7 percent to $1,431.
And here are the month-over-month August numbers for the median price of a single-family home: Sunnyvale, up 3.5 percent to $1.37 million; Mountain View, up 17 percent to $1.70 million; Palo Alto, up 3.2 percent to $2.69 million; Los Altos, up 5.4 percent to $2.95 million; and Los Altos Hills, up 4.4 percent to $4.07 million.
“Anecdotally, I haven’t heard anyone arguing that the market is cooling here,” Seroff said. “Sellers are still emboldened and expect high prices and buyers are still very motivated and willing to do what it takes to get houses.”
Photo: House at 631 Torwood Lane in North Los Altos is on the market, listing for $2,798,000 (Courtesy/Anthony Halawa and DeLeon Realty)
Real estate markets traditionally suffer from the summertime blahs — but Silicon Valley is not a normal market, particularly in Santa Clara County.
With the housing supply at historically low levels, the median price for a single square foot of residential property keeps rising in several Silicon Valley cities. In Los Altos, a square foot was worth $1,291 in August, up 4 percent from July. In Palo Alto, a square foot was worth $1,499, also up 4 percent; in Sunnyvale, $994, up 7.0 percent; and in Los Altos Hills, $1,412, again up 7 percent.
That’s a 7 percent increase in a single month, a dramatic surge.
Even more unusual is this: While sales have fallen across the Bay Area — largely as a result of the region’s tight housing supply — they have risen markedly in Santa Clara County.
A report issued this week by the CoreLogic real estate information service shows that July home sales were down across the nine-county region — but up 13.0 percent in Santa Clara County from the year before. That was despite the fact that the county’s inventory – the number of homes available for sale – was down about 30 percent from the same period in 2016.
Naturally, the median price of a single-family home is rising as buyers compete for the slim offerings. It was up 11 percent year-over-year in the county, where the median price of a single-family home stood at $1,097,000 in July.
“I haven’t heard anyone arguing that the market is cooling here,” said Alex Seroff, an agent with DeLeon Realty in Palo Alto. “Sellers are still emboldened and expect high prices, and buyers are still very motivated and willing to do what it takes to get houses.”
He rolled out additional numbers for the month of August, drawn from the Multiple Listing Service. (The median prices per square foot were also derived from the MLS.)
Active listings were down from the month before in five cities in the heart of Silicon Valley. They fell 45 percent in Sunnyvale; 28 percent in Los Altos; 24 percent in Palo Alto; and 16 percent in Mountain View (where the value of a square foot was flat, at $1,061). Los Altos Hills’ inventory increased 6 percent, though the statistical sample was tiny — the number of listings increased from 31 to 33.
“Inventory is now so low that trying to derive meaningful statistics is challenging,” Seroff conceded. “The sample sizes are so small.”
Even so, to see prices consistently rising month-over-month in the summertime is a bit startling for longtime market observers.
Looking at the same five cities, these were August’s median prices for a single-family home: Sunnyvale, up 3 percent month-over-month to $1.36 million; Mountain View, up 3 percent to $1.5 million; Palo Alto, up 3 percent to $2.67 million; Los Altos, up 3 percent to $2.87 million; and Los Altos Hills, up 1 percent to $3.95 million.
Now, how are home sales increasing in Santa Clara County?
Andrew LePage, a research analyst for CoreLogic, guessed why: “Buyers are burning through whatever inventory there is, really fast.”
And there is no shortage of buyers — many of them well-heeled — in Santa Clara County, where so many tech giants are located and jobs, generally, have lately been on the rebound.
Santa Clara County added 7,400 jobs during July, according to a report from the Employment Development Department. That was the strongest growth in the Bay Area, which added 21,000 jobs as a whole. It was the strongest month of hiring for the region this year – and for Santa Clara County.
“I’ve heard people say Silicon Valley is the 51st state,” said Mark Wong, an Alain Pinel agent in Saratoga. “We have our own culture and our own economy, and our housing prices defy gravity.”
Bay Area home sales dipped in July to their lowest level for that month in six years.
Sales of houses, condominiums and townhomes were down 17.3 percent from June and down 2.6 percent from July 2016, according to the CoreLogic real estate information service. The drop signals that homebuyers across the region’s nine counties have been burning through the scant housing supply, which is at historically low levels.
The Bay Area “posted modest year-over-year gains in home sales this May and June, but a tight inventory and waning affordability have taken a toll,” said Andrew LePage, research analyst with CoreLogic.
As sales dropped, prices rose again on a year-over-year basis — for the 64th straight month. The median price of a home was $758,000, up 9.1 percent from one year earlier.
For the past six months, CoreLogic, reported, the region has posted year-over-year gains in the median sale price between 6.4 percent and 10 percent. The average gain was 8.5 percent — up from an average year-over-year gain of 5.6 percent during the same six-month period of 2016.
“The supply-demand imbalance has been the main driver of rising prices,” said LePage. “So far this summer, and for most of this year, the median price has risen at a slightly higher growth rate than last year. The rise in mortgage interest rates over the past year exacerbates the affordability challenge home shoppers are currently wrestling with in one of the nation’s priciest housing markets. While last month’s median price rose about 9 percent year over year, the mortgage payment — principal and interest — paid on that median-priced home increased about 16 percent.”
Here are some highlights of the report.
In Santa Clara County, sales of all homes — single-family, condominiums, townhomes — were up 9.3 percent in July from the year before. But they were down in San Mateo County (a 5.5 percent drop), San Francisco (6.5 percent), Alameda County (5.2 percent) and Contra Costa County (4.9 percent).
Median prices — again, for all kinds of homes — rose 9.2 percent year-over-year to $950,000 in Santa Clara County. In San Mateo County they were up 6.6 percent to $1,150,000; in San Francisco, up 5.0 percent to $1,207,000; in Alameda County, up 10.2 percent to $760,500; and in Contra Costa County, up 6.6 percent to $565,000.
Looking only at single-family homes, similar patterns held. Year-over-year sales were down 1.9 percent across the region, but the median sale price jumped 10.1 percent to $804,000.
In Santa Clara County, year-over-year sales leaped 13.0 percent and the median price jumped 11.0 percent to $1,097,000. In San Mateo County, sales dropped 9.9 percent while the median rose 4.8 percent to $1,310,000. In San Francisco, sales fell 10.2 percent and the median fell, as well: by 3.4 percent to $1,222,500.
Now the East Bay:
In Alameda County, sales of single-family homes dropped 6.1 percent from the year before, while the median grew 11.2 percent to $825,000. In Contra Costa County, sales dipped 6.7 percent and the median jumped 8.3 percent to $585,000.
The region’s most affordable area for a single-family home was Solano County, where the median price was $410,000. Yet even that price was up 13.9 percent from July 2016.
