If you go to Redfin and search on sale records for the past year for 2000 condos/townhouses you'll see 14. Some sold at a loss, and others that avg 4-5% appreciation over the past 5-10 years.... if they bought a long time ago. I tried to run the search in trulia and it didn't work.

But the true test is days on market and sales. If you look at current listings you'll see about 11 available with an time on the MLS of 104 days... and that doesn't include the listings that were taken off and added back to reset the avg days. Now to look at sales you'll see 14 sold in the last year, so you're looking at about 1 buyer per month, who probably takes the best of the available inventory at the best value. The best priced ones sell, and the higher priced ones sit on the market.

HI Mark.

You're absolutely right. I just want to make sure everyone got that distinction. Preliminary reports are just that-preliminary. They don't always get everything right and title companies specifically state that they do not make any guarantees with the prelim.

In my opinion, people choose to use the Atherton address in these areas for sales reasons to fool unsuspecting buyers. Mostly, though, it comes off as a negative once people get their hopes up and then realize it isn't really Atherton. Case and point, 199 W Selby Lane that was on the market for maybe 2 years and claimed the Atherton address. You never want potential buyers coming though your property thinking one thing and feeling duped or stupid because it turns out to be something its not.

Neville, I suggest that you check the Tax Rate Area ("TRA") of the 3421 El Camino Real property. There's a difference between a TRA in a given city's limits and that of property located in the Unincorporated Area that Matt mentioned. Occasionally, a preliminary title report will be in error to the extent that it incorrectly refers to a city in the legal description. Some agents, indeed, even property owners, mistake a property's mailing address, which can be thought of being "located" within the city which delivers postal service, with their "situs" address, i.e, where the property is legally located.

Thank you, this has been disclosed to the buyers, but all the owners in this townhouse development use the Atherton designation, so does the Property Profile, the Preliminary Title Report and all listings in our MLS for this complex.

3421 El Camino Real is not within the Atherton town Limits. That home is actually in an unincorporated section of San Mateo County where some homes have the option of having a Menlo Park, Redwood City, or Atherton address. Nevertheless, this home is not considered in Atherton.

All Atherton property is zoned for single family residential with the exeption of the Menlo Circus Club, St. Joeseph's & Sacred Heart Schools, and Menlo Middle School, High School & College (all of which are private ). Holbrook-Palmer Park, the police station, the train station, the library, the fire station and the town hall are the only public property within the town.

Any businesses & condo or town home complexes that claim to be in Atherton really aren't.

I have a listing that will be going on the market In February at 3421 El Camino Real for greater than 2000 sq feet. If you are interested in following the progress on this you can call me at 650-345-5626. Cheers
Neville
Prudential

Prices in condos/townhomes in Menlo Park have held up very well. Larger townhomes have also held up because there is a big demand by those who are looking to downsize from their bigger homes in Atherton and Menlo Park. There are many other reasons why home values have stayed strong in Menlo park and Atherton, but there is not enough room here to discuss them.

There are no townhomes or condos in Atherton. Atherton is strictly a Single Family Homes town and all residential except for St. Joseph's Elementary and Sacred Heart Prep., private schools sharing the same campus, and the Menlo Circus Club, a private country club.

Ellen,
I am glad I could help. Thank you.

Most likely any 2000+ sf condo/TH in Menlo Park is going to be up in the Sharon Heights area, or off Sand Hill Rd, and are almost always well over $1M (with some as high as over $1.5M). The strong VC community in that area tends to buy and sell many of these places as they house senior executives for startups they're building, so the values have been holding up well. In Atherton, there's really not many condos/TH to speak of, and of those that do go for sale, they're right around El Camino Real and in the $700K+ range.

Hi Ellen,
You can click on the following link http://tinyurl.com/2bwjc2 to see current condo listings with the square footage over 2000 sq. f. in Menlo Park. Their prices are from $1.225 M to $ 1.995 M. There are no listings in this category in Atherton at the present time. The values in this area are staying high due to the limited supply and increase demand coming from Silicon Valley. Good luck in your search (by the way keep checking your link as it will be updated automatically with new listings).

Is there a specific complex or specific area that you would like to know more about Ellen? As you know, the values vary from complex to complex and area to area.

I have some more current information with Menlo Park that has more townhomes/condo's of the type that you mentioned. According to the MLS the average days on the market is 57 days in the past 6 months for these type of properties that sold. The current active listings have been on the market for an average of 32 days. It does seem that some properties that did sell in about two weeks before are not seeling as quickly, but that may be due to higher list prices of the current inventory (average list price being about 1.5 million versus average 1.3 million list price on sold properties).

Doing a quick MLS search a similar townhome in El Camino Real in Atherton sold in 2004 for $679,000 and for $775,000 in 2006.

There aren't as many 2000+ square feet townhomes/condo's in Atherton and thus less turnover. Both areas have held strong.