Condemned Northern California house sells for $1.23M

FREMONT, Calif. -- A condemned Northern California house with holes in the roof and mildew in the pipes sold last month for $1.23 million, a price tag highlighting how a housing shortage is fueling skyrocketing home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Listing agent Larry Gallegos said Wednesday he received three cash offers after listing the Fremont home in January for $1 million. The three-bedroom, two-bath house home closed $230,000 over the asking price on March 30, said Gallegos, of Better Homes and Gardens, Reliance Partners.

"There are so many 20-year-old millionaires in the area that it really didn't surprise me," said Gallegos.

Two investors bought the house and plan to tear it down and build a 4,000 square-foot, "completely green" home they hope to put in the market within five months, Gallegos said.

He said the buyers didn't even enter the house because they had no interest in the actual building but on its location, which could offer a view of the bay from a second story. Online property records show its assessment is years out of date -- its taxable value is listed as $90,000.

Gallegos, 64, said his father bought a home in Fremont, 35 miles south of San Francisco in the late 1950s for $13,000. "Times have changed but real estate is still a good investment," he said.

The median home price in Fremont, which connects to Silicon Valley through several highways and with easy access to San Francisco and Oakland by train, is $1 million as of late February, according to Zillow.com, compared to $1.3 million in San Francisco and $1.28 million in Berkeley.

The owner of a burned-out house in nearby San Jose last week listed the property for $800,000. Holly Barr, the real estate agent selling that house, told the Mercury News in San Jose the price is standard for the desirable location.