Looking to buy a home in Bay Area? Here’s what $1.7M will get you in Silicon Valley

By Lena Howland

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    CUPERTINO, California (KGO) — This is what $1.7 million will get you on the western edge of Silicon Valley in Cupertino: A cozy 384-square-foot home, which is a little more than the average size of an American hotel room.

“It’s time to bring out the old cliché which just happens to be the truth — it’s location, location, location,” said David Stark, a spokesperson for the Bay East Association of Realtors.

But the house might not be what people are paying for. Instead, it’s the potential of a 7,841 square foot lot the house is on.

“Well there’s one thing that we don’t make anymore and that’s dirt,” Stark said. “Residential real estate, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, is unique. It’s unique because there are so few choices for buyers these days, because sellers really like to live here.”

The home up for sale is at the end of a cul-de-sac, sandwiched between homes worth around $5 million, according to Zillow.

“This home has a lot of interest because of the lot size and the neighborhood. Cupertino is really well known for its school district and great schools, so it drives up the cost of housing in this area,” said Maxwell Dukelow, a buyers agent.

Dukelow says it’s the smallest house that’s been up for sale in Cupertino in more than 10 years.

“I imagine, like an investor or a builder would look at the opportunities that this property has and build a nice 3,200 to 3,600 square foot home and end up selling it for like $4 million or $5 million,” he said.

ABC7 bumped into broker, contractor and real estate developer Kevin Chiao, who stopped by for a tour on Wednesday.

“I was actually looking at the home, for the lot, and so it was really attractive from a price per square footage standpoint,” Chiao said. “I think from a construction standpoint, there are certain issues, because it’s on a slope. So we were looking at that, to see what, if any, is feasible out here to build.”

And he says the price tag didn’t faze him.

“I wasn’t surprised by it. I thought it was a little bit low, so I think if it does sell in the first week, it might sell for a little bit more,” he said.

Chiao later let ABC7 know that he opted not to put an offer in, after finding out the home already had six offers on Wednesday.

He said the highest offer was more than $300,000 over asking, at around $2 million.

“Is it realistic? I guess we’ll find out when the property sells,” Stark said.

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