Fire-ravaged hovel in Silicon Valley hits property market with $800,000 price tag

A small house with major fire damage was put up for sale for $800,000 in San Jose, California. It's become the latest internet joke about Silicon Valley's property market bubble.

The realtor behind the sale insists on the asking price, saying that the area and the land itself JUSTIFIES it. The small burned-out dwelling is located on a 5,800 sq ft (0.0005 sq km) lot in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood.

“If you are in the market, you know real estate, you know that this is what it's worth and the buyers set the price,” realtor Holly Barr told KTVU-TV.

She stressed that the high price mirrors the value of the property, not necessarily the burnt-down structure. “The Bird Avenue address in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood sits close to a proposed transit-oriented Google ‘village’ of offices, research sites and retail stores,” Barr said.

The agent’s Facebook post describes the dump and the lot it sits on as a “Great opportunity to build your dream home!” Barr said that she has received 10 offers since the advert was posted and expected a contract on the property within days.

The southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area of California can be fairly called one of the most expensive places in the United States to live. The median home value in San Jose is $1,078,300, according to online real estate database company Zillow. That's up nearly 24 percent over the past year, and the figure is predicted to rise 8.4 percent this year.

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