Los Altos Home Prices - Real Estate Gained Double Digits Again in 2015.

2015 Los Altos Home Price Summary

Median home prices in Los Altos gained another 15.7% in 2015 while the average home jumped 13.4%.

My calculations for the change from 2014 to 2015:

• Median price went up 15.7% from $2,370,000 to $2,741,00
• Average price went up 13.4% from $2,594,807 to $2,943,503

"Kirk's Two Investment Letters - Which is Best for You?"

I recommend a "core" portfolio for about 80 to 95% of your funds and an "explore" portfolio made of stocks from my newsletter "explore portfolio" for the remainder.  My newsletter stocks are volatile by design to add to overall returns, but you need a good core portfolio to sleep well at night. I offer several different core portfolios for both aggressive & conservative investors.  

If you are not interested in individual stocks, then just follow one of my two core portfolios for 100% of your investment assets.  One portfolio is for "conservative" investors and the other is for "Aggressive" investors.  They use the same funds, but with different percentages so you can easily move from aggressive to conservative as you age or have success and want to lock in nice gains to retire early.

Below is a summary of data I got in the mail from Los Altos realtor David Troyer. Contact David@DavidTroyer.com

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Current Open House Today

This shows what was there before they tore it down and built a new home (3b/2b 1504 sq ft home on 9928 sq ft lot)

Today maxed out 3084 sq ft house (Biggest you can build on that lot) for $4.3 Million!

I Was Wrong. High Taxes Only Bad for Manufacturing Jobs

I was wrong.... I used to think high tax rates for corporations were bad for all jobs. My argument was corporations would move from high tax places like the San Francisco Bay Area or New York City to cities, states and even countries with lower corporate taxes. This was only partially right and we have the housing and job boom in the San Francisco Bay Area as proof.

I blame Massive Pension Obligations for Runaway Growth and Gridlock.

If you live in the Bay Area or visited recently, you will see how the local governments are handling their massive pension debts. They sell our quality of life to developers who build MASSIVE housing projects for expensive housing for the new, high tech workers they allow into the area.

Some fight the conversion of low cost housing and business rentals to expensive homes for both altruistic (the poor who care for your kids need a place to live nearby) and selfish (less gridlock) reasons.  Cities allow massive, expensive housing to create gridlock as they need the tax dollars.  Do any locals benefit from 1B/1B apartments that cost over $5,000 a month to rent in what used to be a Sears parking lot?

• The Village on San Antonio Rates

This UGLY building blocks our once beautiful view of the mountains while contributing to the massive gridlock on San Antonio Road at the Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos border.  I have no need for another place to buy a $50 lunch or a $5 coffee either.

While saying we need "affordable housing" they are in the process of closing down the trailer park in Palo Alto so the citizens, mostly low skilled "immigrants" who take care of the yards, homes and kids of the wealthy in the area. They live in tiny mobile homes here so they can send their kids to the great Palo Alto schools. Some in Palo Alto want them to stay and are trying to compensate the land owners via tax dollars to let the trailers stay. 

• See NONPROFIT GROUP HOPING TO SAVE BUENA VISTA MOBILE PARK IN PALO ALTO

This is land where they can easily build $2M condos in a huge high rise and raise a bundle of taxes since the location is but a short bike ride from Stanford and about equal distant from Google and Tesla, maybe 2 miles away.

Low rent housing and family business are getting pushed out and the cost to live here is soaring.

All the property taxes on the new development will pay the promised pensions. They know it is either do this or cut programs to generate the funds to fund the pension shortfalls.

It is gridlock all over the Bay Area....

I was wrong that massive taxes hurt jobs. 

I need to modify that to high taxes are bad for "working class jobs" such as manufacturing. 

When I started as a summer intern at HP in 1978, we had hundreds of workers doing assembly from chips to finished products.  These were great jobs that didn't require a college degree but had good pay and benefits.  Now none of these jobs are done here as Apple and HP build their products in China.

Cypress Semiconductor CEO TJ Rogers said on TV that he'd have to pay about 9% sales tax just to buy equipment to build a new fab here in Taxifornia... then there is the 2% a year property tax on the land and equipment.  

The super smart who built the internet or are building the new things today will just charge more for our services so we can live wherever we want. The people who came up with software to run Uber or Lyft get rich while the workers all around the World find out how little they are worth if people have the opportunity to look for price competition.

The VCs and CEOs can afford housing that doubles.  Two lots in the area recently sold for about $2M each and they were both torn down to build beautiful new homes that can probably sell for $3.5M to $4M.

• See Los Altos Real Estate Gains 12.9% in 2014

The realtors told me many paid cash and there are many with cash after $10M "liquidity events" such as Tesla, Facebook and Twitter IPOs... not to mention soaring Apple stock and massive Google stock options to insiders.

Rather than raise the minimum wage, which will drive more restaurants to follow the lead of Armadillo Willy's that eliminated wait staff long ago to save on total cost of the bill and save labor costs, we need to cut the corporate tax to zero or at least make it very low.  

Perhaps have a zero corporate tax rate for companies who manufacture as much in the US as they sell here while those who manufacture more overseas pay 25% to bring money earned overseas back to the US.    Companies will use the money to hire workers here and we can tax the workers to recover the taxes we were not going to get anyway as they continue to build overseas.  Fix the laws so individuals can't avoid our high, personal tax rates by becoming a corporation... 

What do you think?

Los Altos Real Estate Gains 12.9% in 2014

Real Estate in Los Altos gained 13% on 2014 compared to 2013 prices.

The median single-family home price for Los Altos California at the end of 2014 was $2,370,000 a gain of 12.9% over 2013 when it was "only" $2,100,000.

2014 was a seller's market as the average Los Altos home sold for 11% above the asking price!

Located between Apple, Google, Facebook and Tesla and just a short drive to Stanford University, Los Altos is central to many of today's growing companies that turned founders and employees into recent millionaires.  With some of the top schools in the country, Los Altos is a prime target for young tech titans looking to diversify their stock holdings and settle down to raise a family or just live in a town with a low crime rate and larger lots for the money when compared to Palo Alto on its Northern border.

Since 1998, the average is up $1,750 or 282% for an annualized gain of 8.7% over 16 years, see:

• Los Altos Real Estate Statistics for 2014

Los Altos real estate data courtesy of Alain Pinel realtors Jeff Stricker (jstricker@apr.com) and Steve Tenbroeck (stenbroeck@apr.com)

Los Altos Home Prices for August 2014

The median single-family home price for Los Altos California as of August 2014 is $2,250,000 a gain of 2% over August 2013 when it was $2,204,000.

The average Los Altos home sold for 5.7% above the asking price!

Located between Apple, Google, Facebook and Tesla and just a short drive to Stanford University, Los Altos is central to many of today's growing companies that turned founders and employees into recent millionaires.  With some of the top schools in the country, Los Altos is a prime target for young tech titans looking to diversify their stock holdings and settle down to raise a family or just live in a town with a low crime rate and larger lots for the money when compared to Palo Alto on its Northern border.

Click for

Historical Mortgage Rates

August2014 Los Altos Sales Summary

The three portfolios in Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter are again near record all time highs.  

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Los Altos real estate data courtesy of Alain Pinel realtors Jeff Stricker (jstricker@apr.com) and Steve Tenbroeck (stenbroeck@apr.com)

Los Altos Home Prices for June 2014

This article shows:

• The 6-month trend for Median Single-Family Home Prices for Los Altos, California
• Individual Single Family Home Sales List for June 2014
• The three portfolios in Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter are again at record all time highs. Subscribe today and get the July 2014 Issue for FREE!

Located between Apple, Google, Facebook and Tesla and just a short drive to Stanford University, Los Altos is central to many of today's growing companies that turned founders and employees into recent millionaires.  With some of the top schools in the country, Los Altos is a prime target for young tech titans looking to diversify their stock holdings and settle down to raise a family or just live in a town with a low crime rate.

The median single-family home price for Los Altos California as of June 2014 is $2,350,000

Historical Mortgage Rates

June 2014 Los Altos Sales Summary

The three portfolios in Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter are again at record all time highs.  

Subscribe today and get the July 2014 Issue for FREE!

Los Altos real estate data courtesy of Alain Pinel realtors Jeff Stricker (jstricker@apr.com) and Steve Tenbroeck (stenbroeck@apr.com)

Home Prices vs API Scores Los Altos, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Mtn View and Sunnyvale

This table compares 2013 API Scores and Median Single Family Home Prices for some of the top school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area's Silicon Valley. 

Cupertino, home of Apple (AAPL), has the top score while its median home price is less than two million dollars.

School District - API Score - Median Single Family Home Price

Cupertino Union - 962 - $1,530,000    

Los Altos  -  961 -  $2,450,000  

Saratoga Union  - 959  - $2,280,000

Palo Alto Unified   - 932    $2,535,000  

Los Gatos Union  - 929 - $1,772,500

Mountain View / Whisman   -  863  - $1,420,000

Sunnyvale - 831 - $964,500

 This table has the above plus changes in median price over the last year and since the 2007.

From California Department of Education: Home » Testing & Accountability » Accountability » Academic Performance Index (API)

Academic Performance Index (API): The cornerstone of California's Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999; measures the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic measures.

API Reports and Data Files

• API Reports
• API Data Files

Los Altos Home Prices for May 2014

This article shows:

• Los Altos Single-Family Home Prices Sales List for May 2014
• Los Altos Average Single-Family Home Prices
• Los Altos Average Prices for Condos & Townhomes
• The three portfolios in Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter are again at record all time highs. Subscribe today and get the June 2014 Issue for FREE!

Located between Apple, Google, Facebook and Tesla and just a short drive to Stanford University, Los Altos is central to many of today's growing companies that turned founders and employees into recent millionaires.  With some of the top schools in the country, Los Altos is a prime target for young tech titans looking to diversify their stock holdings and settle down to raise a family or just live in a town with a low crime rate.

The average single-family home price for a home in Los Altos as of May 2014 is $2,541,631

Historical Mortgage Rates

The average price for condos & townhomes in Los Altos as of May 2014 is $1,190,941 

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Is this the top of another bubble or have towns with good schools and large lots in the Silicon Valley joined the ranks of world class locations like London, New York, Paris, etc. as places people want to live and those with money will keep the prices going up?

The three portfolios in Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter are again at record all time highs.  
Subscribe today and get the June 2014 Issue for FREE!

Los Altos Home Prices Break Two Million Mark for a Modest Home

Located between Apple, Google, Facebook and Tesla and just a short drive to Stanford University, Los Altos is central to many of today's growing companies that turned founders and employees into recent millionaires.  With some of the top schools in the country, Los Altos is a prime target for young tech titans looking to diversify their stock holdings and settle down to raise a family or just live in a town with a low crime rate.

This house on 914 Mercedes Ave is a short walk to highly rated Santa Rita Elementary (942 API score) and Egan intermediate (984 API Score) schools.

Historical Mortgage Rates

Is this the top of another bubble or have towns with good schools and large lots in the Silicon Valley joined the ranks of world class locations like London, New York, Paris, etc. as places people want to live and those with money will keep the prices going up?