Never mind that neither the San Francisco 49ers nor the Oakland Raiders made it to the Super Bowl this year. If you’re thinking of house hunting on Sunday or hosting an open house, call it off. No one will be paying attention. It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and there is no escaping the event.
The Super Bowl is Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Fourth of July rolled into one for football fans. Even nonfans who couldn’t tell a linebacker from a placekicker will watch the game, if only for the commercials. And then there’s the always-unpredictable halftime show, this year featuring Katy Perry.
Residential real estate doesn’t seem to have much of a connection with pro football. But our homes are central to our lives and all our activities, and real estate topics may make their way into the conversation on Sunday.
Here are a few talking points:
PAUL ALLEN, owner of the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks, is also a co-founder of Microsoft Corp., headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Wash. But Allen probably feels right at home when he comes to the Bay Area, considering that he has a palatial home in Atherton. In 2013, Allen paid $27 million for a massive, 22,000-square-foot custom-built home in the San Mateo County town. The home has six bedroom suites and boasts luxury amenities such as a spa and a movie theater. A guest house with two bedroom suites and a kitchen is nearby, plus a swimming pool, a five-car garage, and a “house manager suite.” That’s in addition to the island Allen owns in Seattle, complete with six mansions, plus homes in New York City and southeastern France.
TOM BRADY, star quarterback of the AFC champion New England Patriots and San Mateo native, isn’t doing too poorly in the real estate game, either. The Curbed website in Boston tries to keep up with Brady’s frequent moves and sales: a penthouse in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, a three-bedroom condo, a 22,000-square-foot castle in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood, and a 5.2-acre parcel in Brookline, Mass.
IS THERE a correlation between Super Bowl appearances and a city’s median home price? Two years ago, the RealEstate.com website looked at the number of times NFL teams have appeared in the Super Bowl and the real estate prices of their home cities. They found that the 10 teams that have been to the Super Bowl the most (the 49ers among them) come from cities with an average median home price of $339,800. Interestingly, the 10 teams that have been to the Super Bowl the least come from cities with an average median home price of just $212,450.
ARE MORE states partial to the Seahawks or the Patriots? The website Estately looked at Facebook data and found that the Pats win this contest decisively, with more Patriots fans than Seahawks fans in 40 states. The Seahawks dominated in the Pacific Northwest and in states along the Canadian border, while California is a Patriots stronghold.
A HOMEOWNER in Glendale, Ariz., which is hosting this year’s Super Bowl, painted a Seahawks logo on his front lawn and sprayed his house down with the team colors. Ashtin Fitzwater told Fox Sports he grew up in Washington and is a Seahawks superfan, but he would likely get few takers if he tried to sell the house in that condition, as Arizona is one of the 40 states with a plurality of Patriots fans.
BUT ENOUGH about Glendale. Here in the Bay Area we’re looking forward to next year, when Super Bowl 50 will be played in the San Francisco 49ers’ new, $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. It’s the first Super Bowl in the Bay Area since 1985, when Stanford University’s stadium was the host field, and analysts say it will bring thousands of jobs and an economic boost totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to the region. Meanwhile, beautiful Silicon Valley will get even more worldwide exposure, only adding to the luster of its real estate markets.
Enjoy the game!
(Image: Flickr/Jim Bahn)