Intel Co-Founder’s Silicon Valley Estate Lists for $21.8M

https://www.wsj.com/articles/intel-co-founders-silicon-valley-estate-lists-for-21-8-million-1537282101

by uptown • 8 years ago

30 38 8 years ago

darawk• 8 years ago

Always amusing what the WSJ's sense of proportion and aesthetics are (I know they're attributing the quote to his biographer, but still):

She called the French-style home “nice but not ostentatious,”
The property also contains a three-bedroom guesthouse, a grotto-style swimming pool, a lighted tennis court, a putting green, a bocce court, a barn and a vineyard.

tsomctl• 8 years ago

Don't see how that's a contradiction, assuming that they actually use those features.

Ostentatious: characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice

If you want to see some ostentatious houses, check out the McMansion Hell blog.

drb912• 8 years ago

Ostentatious: characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice

Seems like a mansion to me.

hmiedema2• 8 years ago

Anyone have a free link?

NegativeLatency• 8 years ago

Click "Web" up under the article title

hmiedema2• 8 years ago

Ah nice, didn't know that. Thanks!

timmonsjg• 8 years ago

https://outline.com/ynkvrY

projectramo• 8 years ago

Bought for $5.5 million in 1999, and going for $21.8 million now.

So about 7.5% per year in appreciation over 19 years.

Really good rate of return but not the eye popping numbers you expect to hear from the heart of Silicon Valley.

gargarplex2• 8 years ago

Well, remember that 1999 was dotcom bubble as well. So timing is a factor. I wonder if the mid range or the bottom of the market (ca. 1999) benefited from similar price appreciation - would check but code is done compiling, back to work!:).

synaesthesisx• 8 years ago

Would have been better off buying the S&P

tristanj2• 8 years ago

No, the SP&500 has a lower rate of return from 1999 to today. With dividend reinvestment it was 6.1%.

gargarplex2• 8 years ago

No, assuming 9/99 - 9/18.

https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/

     Annualized S&P 500 Return (Dividends Reinvested)	6.141%

But I don't know what improvements were made to the house or what they cost... also didn't calculate the ongoing maintenance costs..

classybull• 8 years ago

Except with property you have the utility value of having a place that keeps rain off of your head and with the S&P you have the utility value of.. getting to be obsessive about numbers on a screen every moment of every day. Whether that difference is worth the extra points is an individual call.

pascalxus2• 8 years ago

With housing we've been a huge macro bull run for the last 50 years here in CA. But, it's not going to go on forever. I'm not saying it's gonna crash, but In the long long run, the rate of return on housing will always be equal to inflation. In addition, You probably want to take into account taxes and depreciation/repairs/costs.

aliston4• 8 years ago

There is no economic reason that housing should track inflation in the long term because land in areas of economic grown becomes more valuable over time. It is driven by things like wealth generation, local incomes, outside investment, immigration, supply restrictions and so on. Ive read some estimates that put the long-term real return at ~2%, which could be competitive with stock returns with the typical modern 5:1 leverage.

sjg007• 8 years ago

I think a natural disaster will have a major effect on prices or a refinery leak or something. Apart from that I think it is limited. The market might top out if the IPO and VC money slows down.

dkrich• 8 years ago

The house is being listed at $21.8 million. That doesn't mean it's going to sell for that. There have been a number of stories recently about very expensive homes sitting on the market for years and having to be reduced in price substantially.

I'm not sure I understand all the comments comparing this RoR to the S&P or some other benchmark. S&P stocks are highly liquid, so the price you see is the actual price you can get at any given moment. Not so with housing. The actual selling price could be higher or much lower depending on who is ready, willing and able to make this purchase in the next few months.

gopi• 8 years ago

Some time ago i did this math by choosing random bay area properties in Zillow, find the oldest last sold price and arrive at CAGR to the current zestimate.

Mostly it was in the band of 6-8%. This is less than S&P 500 and considering the mortgage rate was >6% before 2006 its not much. One exception to this is properties bought in the 2008 recession which had 12-18% CAGR.

Soundest• 8 years ago

That's not taking into account that a $5m property from 1999 will have required significant refurbishment, property taxes and maintenance to even retain it's value let alone increase.

drb912• 8 years ago

I can't read the article. Why is this interesting?

ericand• 8 years ago

Moderate to small, 3/4 bedroom, 2 bathroom houses sell for $4M or so in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. I'm not sure how newsworthy it is that a co-founder of a major corporation has a home 5x the cost of normal homes in the neighborhood.

jedc• 8 years ago

Looks like it's just the land that stayed the same. The house is totally new: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Woodside/45-Roberta-Dr-94062/home/...

tristanj2• 8 years ago

I think that's not the right property, as it's in Woodside not Los Altos Hills. Based on google maps and the picture in the WSJ article, the location of the property appears to be 690 Loyola Drive, Los Altos, CA. It seems to be multiple parcels (one for the vineyard and one for the house).

neurotech1• 8 years ago

Archive (Non-Paywall): http://archive.is/VNiUp

Intel Co-Founder’s Silicon Valley Estate Lists for $21.8M

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