In an unsettling distillation of the broader housing market, the lot's price rose by $2.3 million in under two years.
The Sacramento Bee reports that a quarter-acre residential lot in Palo Alto is expected to sell for $5,390,000.
In 2016, the lot was valued at just $78,600. But it sold for $3.1 million that May, and again for $3.9 million in September. Now, citing high demand in the wealthy city for buyers seeking to build a custom home, the county assessor deems the lot's new asking price "fair."
Not for the first time, Palo Alto's exorbitant prices are being called a microcosm of the housing crisis. Median home prices peaked in the city in 2017, having doubled in some neighborhoods since 2004. Today, "even software engineers" are feeling the impact, the Bee says.
FULL STORY: A real fixer-upper: How an empty lot in Palo Alto could sell for nearly $5.5 million
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