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Had a chat with our insurance agent recently; she wants us to increase our insurance coverage on our home in old palo alto, which is currently calculated based
by fernly 9y ago
Had a chat with our insurance agent recently; she wants us to increase our insurance coverage on our home in old palo alto, which is currently calculated based on $350/sq.ft. rebuild cost. She said that clients in the burned-out areas in Santa Rosa were being quoted much higher rates, and although she admitted that was partly due to a large number of people competing for contractors all at once, she believes $450 is a more realistic replacement cost basis.
That would be also based on replacing the existing structure, which is single-story, no basement.
What almost always happens when an older house is sold in this area, is that the property sells for between 1M and 2M, is immediately scraped and replaced by a two-story-plus-full-basement (with home theater and au-pair apartment), which then sells for 6M-8M with a profit of circa 1.5M.
- jdavis703 9y agoSo based on that rate I should be able to easily purchase my ~550 sq. ft. apartment. In fact the payments on a 30 year mortgage would be about $1300/month. Clearly the problem is the price of land, made even less affordable because of density maximums. If the price of a lot could be split over 6 people, a lot more people could afford to purchase a house.
- sjg007 9y agoYes but your nimby neighbors won’t allow it. Also high end homes and condos have higher profit margins, this is because finishing costs are cheap relative to sale value.