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martyb writes:

I've seen the price of real estate resume its seemingly relentless rise, but this is insane. A tiny (897 square-foot; 83.6 square meter) house in Palo Alto, California is situated on a 4361 square-foot (405 square meter) lot and has been placed on the market for $2.59 Million:

The little home at 128 Middlefield Road, has two-bedrooms, one-bathroom but is just 15 minutes away from Googleplex and the other tech giants, making the small home in high demand.

[...] The home was sold back in 2008 for just $899,000 and the current price tag is actually below market value for the area today.

The house was built in 1924 and has been remodeled through the years to keep it current.

The actual asking price is unclear. The Daily Mail article (first link) claims a price of $2.59 million, but he broker listing in the embedded link shows the price being $1,988,000; quite a bit less, but still quite expensive.

The article has pictures of each room as well as the yard; it looks to me like a quite nice home. One of the pictures shows a bulkhead, but I saw no mention of a basement.

If this tiny house costs this much, what would be considered a starter home? And how much would that cost? Though I realize this story is about Palo Alto, I understand there are other places in the world with sky high real estate prices. London, Singapore, and Hong Kong come to mind.

What are housing prices like in your area... how much would it cost you to buy a home comparable to this one, or to rent an apartment of equivalent size?

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