The Bay area real estate market is so hot that even a fire can’t extinguish demand for a home, with a San Mateo home damaged by a fire getting a pending offer of nearly $800,000 after being on the market for less than a week.
And it wasn’t the first fire at the home, nestled on an 8,000-square-foot lot. One week before the house caught fire, firefighters responded to a vehicle fire. The property also had been cited for safety violations.
This checkered past didn’t stop a buyer from making a $799,000 offer on the 820-square-foot home, a 1950s-era two bedroom, one bath bungalow. Slightly charred from the fire, the home features a shingled rood and wood frame.
According to The Daily Journal, the house is being sold as-is, and the prospective buyer reportedly plans to rebuild and sell.
Median home values in San Mateo County are up to nearly $1.2 million, according to Zillow, making it a challenge to find a home for less than $1 million.
According to the newspaper, a county zoning inspector will have to approve plans by the prospective buyer and the fire remains under investigation.
Purchases like this may become more common as prices soaring 11.4 percent in February across the Bay-area region, according to CoreLogic.
“It’s the first double-digit price gain since January 2016, when the median went up 14 percent,” said Andrew LePage, a research analyst with CoreLogic.
“It’s pretty much a seller’s market right now,” noted William Doerlich, president of the Bay East Association of Realtors.
In San Mateo County, the median home price topped $1.3 million in March, according to Andrew LaMont, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker.
Trulia also noted in a March report that the Bay Area housing supply has contracted in recent months with inventory over the last five years, including starter homes, mid-tier trade-up homes and luxury homes, down 62 percent in Mateo County.
