1 Edge Road in Lindenwood closed in July for $8,000,000. The MLS has the sale on July 29. On October 9 it was back on the MLS at $10,500,000. Same 1969 house, 3,130 square feet, four bedrooms, pool and a three-car garage, on 43,714 square feet. That's $2.5 million more, about 31 percent, 72 days after the sale date.The remarks mention an updated kitchen and talk up the redevelopment potential. I don't know what work, if any, happened between July and October, and the listing doesn't say. Lisa Gao and the Axis Elite Team at Aspire Homes have it. MLS ML82064187.There's a second listing on the same acre. ML82062590 went up in late September as a presale for a proposed house of about 10,067 square feet plus a 794-square-foot ADU, priced at $10.5 million. On October 9 that price jumped to $19 million, the same day the as-is listing went live at $10.5 million. So it's the old house and the dirt for $10.5 million, or the proposed new house for $19 million. The $8.5 million gap works out to about $783 a foot of proposed house. The presale remarks call the renderings conceptual and tell buyers to verify approvals on their own. Same team ran a similar two-option setup on Irving and De Bell, which I covered October 19, so I'll leave that part alone.The sales history on Edge is the part I keep rereading. The price history shows $198,000 in 1975, $5,000,000 in May 2019, $6,500,000 in November 2021 and $8,000,000 this July. The county's 2025 roll has it at $7,035,807, and $6,927,565 of that is land. The assessor puts the house itself at about $108,000. Last year's tax bill was $78,305.Over on the El Camino to Alameda side, 216 Valparaiso Avenue came on October 16 at $9,950,000. Michael Warren at Compass has it, and the remarks put it a block from the Menlo Circus Club. Built 1964, mostly one level, four bedrooms and four baths in 3,981 square feet per MLS, on 44,000 square feet with a pool, spa, a private well for irrigation and two separate two-car garages. MLS ML82064275. I'd get the house measured before pricing it by the foot.Those two lots are 286 square feet apart. Both are zoned R1001A, and both sit in Menlo Park City Elementary. Per foot of land, Valparaiso asks about $226 and Edge about $240. Per foot of house it's roughly $2,499 against $3,355, which is why I'd price both of these off the land and treat the house as a bonus or a demo cost.Tax bills are where buyers get surprised. Valparaiso's 2025 assessment is $445,277 and the bill was $6,240, a long Prop 13 hold. Edge paid about 12.5 times that on a nearly identical acre. Whoever buys either one gets reassessed at the purchase price. Using Edge's own effective rate last year, about 1.11 percent, $9.95 million comes to roughly $110,700 a year and $10.5 million roughly $116,900. Get the actual figure from the county before you write.Freddie Mac's 30-year average came out this morning at 7.24 percent, down from 7.32 percent last week and the lowest print this month. A year ago it was 6.17. That's a conforming average and jumbo pricing does its own thing, but for scale, on an $8.4 million loan at 80 percent of $10.5 million, the drop moves principal and interest from about $57,702 to $57,246 a month. About $456, which isn't what decides a purchase at this level.Altos Research's Thursday pull for Atherton (October 29) still has 21 single-family actives, median list $10,500,000, Market Action Index 42, slight seller's advantage. Median price of new listings is $9,950,000, which happens to be Valparaiso's ask to the dollar.Quick updates. 269 Oak Grove, the $15 million Lindenwood corner I wrote up October 13, shows pending on MLSListings, last modified October 20, eight days after it listed. At the other end, 3421 El Camino Real #22E, a 1991 tri-level townhouse with three bedrooms in a 38-unit complex, cut from $1,588,000 to $1,499,000 on October 23. HOA is $715 a month. It was the cheapest listing on Coldwell Banker's Atherton page this morning, about $723 a foot.I've done SB9 deals in Atherton, and acre lots like Edge and Valparaiso come up in those talks. Whether a split works depends on the parcel, the town's current standards and the owner-occupancy affidavit, so talk to planning staff before you put a split into your offer price. General information only. Have an attorney review anything recorded.Michael Williams is a Bay Area agent with Golden Gate Luxury (Turbohome Inc). Seventeen years in, more than $250M closed, formerly #1 at Flyhomes and Aalto, DRE #01780513. Golden Gate Luxury is not affiliated with Golden Gate Sotheby's.General market commentary only. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. Listing details, sale records, and market stats change; verify current MLS and public records before acting on any of it.Also on Medium: https://medium.com/@michael_30207/an-atherton-acre-sold-for-8-million-in-july-it-was-back-on-the-mls-at-10-5-million-in-october-7bdc9743771f
Michael Williams
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