63 Irving Avenue has been on the MLS since August 28 at $9,980,000. The house does not exist yet.It is a presale. Lisa Gao and the Axis Elite Team at Aspire Homes are marketing a custom modern build in Atherton's Lindenwood with estimated completion in the fourth quarter of 2027. The remarks describe about 6,637 square feet including an attached 800-square-foot ADU, seven bedrooms, and a lower level with theater, gym and golf simulator. The MLS feed shows a lot of about 0.49 acres. There are two lots at the development. The smaller one carries the $9.98 million price and the larger one is $10.98 million. Renderings are labeled illustrative. MLS ML82059361.On paper that works out to about $1,504 a square foot.Same listing team has a second Lindenwood presale at 11 De Bell Drive, off Middlefield, and the price history on that one deserves a slow read. Public records show it sold October 9, 2025 for $5.5 million. It came back on the MLS September 11, 2026 at $9.8 million as a planned new build. Four days later the list price dropped to $4,580,000 and the remarks were rewritten into two options. Option 1 is the homesite with conceptual plans at $4.58 million. Option 2 is the finished house at $9.8 million, subject to final specifications, construction terms and a purchase agreement. The plan shows about 5,483 square feet including a 797-square-foot ADU on roughly 0.40 acres, and yes, another golf simulator. MLS ML82061047. The remarks end with "Adjacent Lot 1 is also available."So a property that traded for $5.5 million a year ago is now being offered a lot at a time, with the first lot asking about 83 percent of last year's purchase price and a second lot sitting next to it. An earlier version of the De Bell remarks, still visible in search results, offered a $300,000 seller credit to a buyer who completes the purchase and satisfies SB9 owner-occupancy requirements. That sentence is gone from the current remarks. I could not find a separate MLS listing for Lot 1.SB9 is the state law that lets a single-family lot be split in two, with up to two units on each resulting lot. I do a lot of this work, and buyers tend to skip the owner-occupancy affidavit. Under Government Code 66411.7, the applicant for an urban lot split signs an affidavit stating they intend to live in one of the units as a principal residence for at least three years from the date the split is approved. Anyone buying a lot that came out of a split should have the parcel map, approval date, any recorded affidavit and the conditions of approval in hand before writing. General information only. This is not legal advice, and an attorney should read the recorded documents.Now the board. Altos Research's Monday pull for Atherton (October 19) shows 21 single-family actives, up from 17 last Thursday. Median list price $14.99 million. Listing price per square foot around $2,343. Median days on market 21. Market Action Index 41, which Altos calls a slight seller's advantage. For closed sales, MK Bay Area Pulse put Atherton's Q3 2026 median at $12.25 million on 21 sales, 105.4 percent of original list, nine days on market.Both presales sit under the town's median list. Per foot they sit far under the active board, at about $1,504 for Irving and about $1,787 for the $9.8 million De Bell build. Some of that discount is earned. You cannot walk either house, you do not control the schedule, and finish quality is a guess off renderings. Last week 28 San Benito came on at $7.95 million finished, with its ADU already built and two open houses on the calendar, which is a very different kind of risk at a lower number.The questions I would put to the builder on Irving or De Bell are dull and they matter. Find out who holds the deposit and when it goes nonrefundable. Ask whether permits are issued or still at concept stage, since De Bell's own remarks call its plans conceptual, and get completion risk in writing. The town is also mid-rewrite on its construction management rules; the council continued that hearing on October 7, the draft carries fines and stop-work orders for violations, and the next regular council meeting is October 22. And run your carry at today's rates, because Freddie Mac had the 30-year at 7.40 percent on October 15, and a late-2027 delivery that slips into 2028 is a longer bridge than most buyers model.Sellers sitting on Lindenwood land are going to look at the De Bell sequence and do math. A $5.5 million purchase in October 2025, then one lot of it listed at $4.58 million eleven months later, with a sibling lot behind it. That math only holds if a buyer closes at or near those numbers, and as of Monday neither presale shows as pending.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_30207/9-98-million-for-a-lindenwood-house-that-won-t-be-finished-until-late-2027-6f20c21638b7
Michael Williams
Luxury Specialist
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