This burned-out Silicon Valley home just hit the market. Asking price? $800,000 | The Sacramento Bee

A fire-gutted house in Silicon Valley has hit the market for $800,000.

While that might seem a tad pricey for an uninhabitable, burned-out hulk, Realtor Holly Barr told KTVU the price reflects the value of the property, not the ruined house currently occupying the lot. The house burned down two years ago.

“They did leave it standing so you can remodel it versus tearing it down so you save a lot of money when you can leave a wall up and do a remodel versus a complete tear-down,” Barr told the station. 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.

A post Monday on the Willow Glen Charm page on Facebook lists a $799,000 asking price. Barr told KTVU she’s already received at least 10 offers and expects to sell the property in the next few days.

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Some people who commented on the Facebook post found the price ridiculous, however.

“What has this area come to when a family earning good money cannot even afford to buy even a burnt-out wreck. Greed, pure greed from all concerned right here,” wrote one woman. “Sad that prices have jumped that high. I’ll never be able to buy a home in the wonderful neighborhood I grew up in … and I make a ‘good’ living,” wrote another.

Others, however, argued the price wasn’t exorbitant given the value of the property.

“I have lived here since 1998 and have seen people pay more for land without a home on it or tear a perfectly good home down so this isn’t much different,” wrote one poster. “We live in a booming area, with so much to offer, so of course more people want in – it’s simple supply and demand,” wrote another, who chided commenters for attacking the real estate agent.

The average price of a single-family home in Santa Clara County is $1.4 million, according to Fortune. In March, a two-bedroom, one-bath home near an Apple campus in nearby Sunnyvale sold for $2 million – a record $2,358 per square foot, reported KPIX. And in 2017, a fire-gutted house in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood sold for $700,000, according to Fortune.

Doug Goss, vice president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, told The San Francisco Chronicle that home prices have risen 18 percent in the past six months in the county, crediting the rise to low inventory and high demand.

“You have these clients who you are like ‘Wow, you are really paying premium for that home,’ and then three months later what they paid is a deal,” he told the publication.