How Upcoming Tech IPOs Could Affect The Bay Area Housing Market
Alex Comsa, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Palo Alto, agrees that the upcoming tech IPOs will result in a massive injection of liquid cash into the Bay Area.
“A few of my clients are actually waiting for these IPOs to take place so they can either buy their first house or eventually upgrade their current residence,” he says.
In particular, the IPOs will have what Comsa describes as “a huge effect” on the high-end market, which should trickle down to the lower end.
Online Real Estate Brokerage REX Raises $45M Series C
Alex Comsa, who works with Coldwell Banker Palo Alto specializing in luxury Silicon Valley real estate, believes that the industry deals with micro-climates and as such, “there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ option.”
Comsa personally believes broker compensations should be variable and as such has implemented a dynamic structure in his own business. “It really feels like a partnership, and sellers like the fact that both parties benefit from a higher sale price,” Comsa said.
Comsa is also skeptical of claims by online brokerages that they’re using AI and big data to enhance the home buying or selling process.“AI in real estate is in a very early stage of development, and these startups need maybe a decade to get it right,” he told Crunchbase News.
Palo Alto home, next to Zuckerberg’s house, sells for eye-popping price
Alex Comsa, a Realtor who specializes in Palo Alto, said the Hamilton Avenue home price is definitely an outlier for the neighborhood, even given the strong residential market.
The transaction may suggest a trend of sky-high values near Valley tech celebrities: Comsa noted a 2,650-square-foot home on the 2000 block of Waverley Street — within spitting distance of the longtime home of Steve and Laurene Powell Jobs — sold last October for $9 million, or $3,400 a foot.
The look of luxury
It’s all about location, said Alex Comsa, Coldwell Banker sales associate in Palo Alto. “Some clients want to be within walking distance to downtown, or in a small pocket like Old Palo Alto,” he said.
“Some clients are looking for large lots, even though the houses are just average, and the lot value of a large lot brings the property to the ‘luxury’ pricing,” he said, adding that most new homes in the area would qualify as luxury. Nash Verghese, a software executive and client of Comsa who recently purchased a home in North Los Altos for around $3 million, was a buyer searching for the right lot, rather than the house on it. “It is not uncommon to see 10-plus offers on these luxury properties, especially the ones that are very unique,” Comsa said.
Mark Zuckerberg extends privacy settings to neighboring houses
The transactions suggest the multi-billionaire has spent many times the $7m cost of his own home, bought two years ago in a leafy neighborhood of Palo Alto in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley.
Despite a fortune estimated at $19bn, the 29-year old is known for living modestly, having rented for years before taking the plunge into northern California’s overheated property market. But the size of Zuckerberg’s reported land grab brings him into line with Silicon Valley’s flashier inhabitants. “It’s 10 times more than a typical house,” local estate agent Alex Comsa told the Silicon Valley Business Journal. “It’s unheard of.”
Zuckerberg buys four homes next to his property
$14.5 million may sound like enough to buy a mansion, but in the Crescent Park neighborhood of Palo Alto, it got 2,600 square feet on less than four-tenths of an acre. But when the house is just behind and to the side of Zuckerberg’s house, it’s apparently worth a lot more than it seems.
Alex Comsa is the real estate person who helped unravel the mystery of so why the cluster of four homes have sold for so much more than their values. “It’s nice to have someone like Mark living next door because these guys hit the jackpot,” Comsa said.
