Ultra-luxe Atherton heats up in spring home-selling season

There is no other place on the Peninsula that says, “You’ve made it,” quite like Atherton, according to residential agents in the country’s most expensive zip code. 

“It is ground zero for where venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and captains of industry aspire to live and raise their families,” said Charlene Cogan, an agent with Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno.

The temperate climate, tree-lined streets, well-regarded public and private schools, and proximity to Stanford University and Sand Hill Road don’t hurt either, agents say. But other affluent Peninsula cities have that too. The real draw for ultra-luxury buyers is feeling like they are in the beating heart of Silicon Valley’s elite.

“Affluent clients want to be surrounded by the fellow innovators, disruptors and philanthropists who have created our local tech community and impacted the world,” said Shena Hurley of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.

It’s also a name-brand town that draws international buyers in significantly higher numbers than neighboring markets. Atherton and Palo Alto are the two biggest names in the Bay Area internationally, said Patricia Karoubi with The Agency, who is from France. People often start off in Palo Alto, she said, and move to Atherton when they can afford it. 

The median sales price in Atherton this year through late April is $6.75 million, or more than $2,000 per square foot, according to Compass data, compared with $3.5 million and $1,800 per square foot in Palo Alto.

“You live in Palo Alto, you make more money, the next step is Atherton,” Karoubi said. 

Neighboring Woodside is also a competitive market for the ultra-affluent, she said, but its more removed, hillside feel is not for everyone.

“I’m not really into wilderness and having a coyote in your backyard,” Karoubi said, adding that Woodside is a must for equestrians. “There are no horses in Atherton.”

That’s not to say Atherton is a model of density. There are only 640 acres in the “bucolic town,” Cogan said, and most lots are at least an acre, “with a lucky few adding to them when possible.” Several empty lots or teardowns sold recently for about $10 million an acre. Many homes are set back from the road and protected from prying eyes by walls, gates and landscaping.

But Atherton is also largely flat and has easy access to major commercial thoroughfares such as El Camino Real and upscale retail and dining meccas including Stanford Shopping Center. 

“Atherton is a good balance of being close to everything but then really kind of being in your own little pocket and your secure little state,” Karoubi said. 

The market never really dipped the way other Bay Area markets did in late 2022 and 2023, though buyers were “definitely more careful” last year, she added.

Compass agent Butch Haze normally works in the luxury market in San Francisco and found it “really shocking” to see the big turnout for his recent $24 million listing in Atherton this spring. The fact that other sales have closed around the same price point recently gives buyers confidence to move forward, he said. 

“If I’m driving down the street and I see a bunch of $30-million houses, I know there’s a good chance that the house has value,” he said. 

Here’s a closer look at a couple of recent $20-million-plus sales in the town this spring.

66 Barry Lane 

Seven bedrooms, 9.5 baths, 10,345 square feet
Listed: Feb. 2 for $24 million
Closed:  April 25 for $23 million 

Haze, co-listing with Compass agent Omar Maissen, was called in to market the property by a “private investor money manager” they have worked with before after the investor took the 1-acre property back in a foreclosure. 

Public records show the home last sold for $4.4 million in 2006 to Nariman Teymourian. He and his wife Gail built the property in 2015 but lost it to a group of investors who loaned them $37 million backed by the Atherton home and two office properties, according to court records. The investors filed a suit in bankruptcy court in January claiming to have been defrauded. Teymourian countersued a month later, objecting to the foreclosure. 

Haze said a judge “executed the final requirements to sell the property,” which is supported by court documents filed on the same day as the close. 

The sellers, technically named 66 Barry Lane LLC, thought it would be a good idea to get a San Francisco agent since they figured that’s where the buyer would be from, Haze said. It appears they were correct. Haze could not say much about the buyer due to an NDA, but did say that they were referred to a Peninsula agent, Michael Dreyfus at Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty, by a San Francisco agent. Dreyfus did not reply to a request for comment, but B Lima LLC is the buyer, according to public records. 

Haze said the presentation of the home, from luxury stager Birch and Tailor, cost close to six figures. 

Though the house was in good shape, he said, that amount was needed because “uber wealthy” buyers need to feel “a mood,” which in this case he described as “family tech.” To Haze, that means a modern look with all the tech bells and whistles, but not too cold and formal, and based around an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. 

About 30 percent of the buyers who toured the home were international, he said, and the home went into contract after about a week on the market. 

217 Atherton Avenue 

Five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, 7,860 Square feet 
Listed: Jan. 22 for $23.5 million
Sold: March 27 for $21.055 million

Hurley represented the sellers, Pacific Oak Realty LLC, who have owned the cul-de-sac property since 2006, paying $11.4 million to buy it from developer Pacific Peninsula Group, according to public records. 

Though they were “quite pleased to purchase a new construction home from a pre-eminent Atherton builder,” Hurley said, they also wanted to make the property their own. They “spared no expense” during “an extensive renovation to achieve the Hamptons-style look we see today.” 

That includes hickory wide-plank floors, custom wood paneling and molding on walls and ceilings, custom paint colors, antique fireplace mantels, a new kitchen and bathrooms, a new roof, and stone work that was hand cut and hand stacked on site over almost two years. 

The “quality and timeless design” of the renovation meant that Hurley only had to paint and install new light fixtures to replace the antique fixtures the owners took with them when they left. She had the house ready to go on the market even before the spring season kicked off. 

“We decided to lead the 2024 market instead of waiting for it to start,” she said of the late January listing date. 

In addition to the design and finishes, prospective buyers appreciated the “ideal location of a West Atherton address situated on an exceptionally quiet street,” Hurley said. It went into contract after about a month on the market.

Cogan represented the buyers but declined to comment on their reasons for purchasing the property. The buyers were Ken and Anne Lawler, who already own a house in Atherton, according to public records. Ken Lawler is a senior advisor at Battery Ventures, a private equity company that invests in tech companies. It is based in Boston, but has offices in San Francisco and on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

84 Stockbridge Avenue

Seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 10,320 square feet 
Listed: April 22 $24M
In Contract: April 26 

As a newly completed property, built by Abergel Homes, 84 Stockbridge ticked all the boxes for buyers in the $20-million-plus market, according to Karoubi, who was in contract the same week she listed the home for $24 million. She co-listed it with Stephanie Elkins at Coldwell Banker.

Since the sale has not yet closed, Karoubi could not disclose the price, but said the developers were “very happy.” 

Public records show that Abergel bought the property for $6.4 million in 2019 and pulled permits in 2021, indicating an estimated $4-million-plus construction budget, including $300,000 for a new ADU on the 1-acre site. 

Karoubi said the central Atherton location is the most coveted in town, but that she was a little surprised the buyers didn’t seem to ding the house for being on a cut-through street that connects El Camino and Alameda de las Pulgas. 

“It’s a big number for Stockbridge because it’s not a sidestreet,” she said. “It’s a good street, but I wouldn’t say it’s the quietest street.”

The home, like most in Atherton, is set back from the road and has a wall and two gates so only its roof-line can be seen from the street, she said. But unlike many “museum-like,” and “stuffy” older properties or newer, colder builds, the home has a “modern organic” style that eschews the white-box look for more beiges, muted golds and other earthy tones, she said. 

“Even though the property is an estate, it feels homey and warm,” she added.

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