#1 The late Jim Nabors' home in Hawaii @ $4,500,000

#2 The late Aretha Franklin's estate in Detroit @ $600,000

#3 A home in Rancho Rinconada, Cupertino CA which sold in September @ $1,620,000. (we bought our first home there in the late 1980's for $103,000)

Joe, if Rancho Rinconada had been built on the east side, it would have become another Tropicana Village slum in a hurry. 

I'm pretty sure the entire RR community is still unincorporated, but it's been a while since I've been over that way.  People will pay a premium for one of these homes because they're in the desirable Cupertino school district.  Also, assuming this area is still under the county's jurisdiction, it's easier to get permits for additions.  As evidenced in the background in the picture above, entire second floors are being added to these homes on a fairly routine basis.

Surprise...Cupertino annexed the entire RR area a few years back. It was an "unincorporated" area before that. People would bulldoze the original 900 sq foot homes and build a mini 2-story mansion within 2 feet of the property line. No more. There is a very strict building code that limits the size of the house to the size of the property. No more big homes. As our real estate lady said ( we sold our house and the home next door that was willed to us prior to the annexation) Cupertino killed the goose that laid the golden egg. RR was semi-slummy when we lived there but oddly enough we had wonderful times in that little pre-fab place compared to the huge-pool home we bought on pricey Dry Creek Road in Willow Glen. Dale, my partner of 24 years, died in that house. I couldn't wait to sell it, pool and all. You don't need "big", "luxurious" or a swimming pool to have a great, happy home.

That Dry Creek Rd. home must be worth a fortune now.  Realistically, what home in this area isn't?

Tropicana Village...I had pretty much forgotten all about that place. As a little kid, I went to "Rustic Lands" day camp in Alum Rock Park (sort of a later version of an Adolph Hitler Youth Camp). The school bus that transported us there went right by this exciting new place called Tropicana Village. I remember there were manikins wearing one-piece bathing suits and bathing caps poised on diving boards. Interesting to see the price of a remodeled home there today. I'd rather save money and buy Aretha's house and live in just one room. At least when I came home from the grocery store I'd feel like I owned something. Is the East Side still seedy?

Yes Joe, the east side is still very much the ghetto part of town, riddled with zombie third world drivers on the streets and even the freeways that pass through it.  I don't see that changing any time soon.  It's the one part of town where the average home price -- in the flat lands anyway -- has a long way to go before catching up to the $1M average in pretty much in any other area in the city -- if it ever even does.

Your picture #3 shows how the homes in Rancho Rinconada look like palaces compared to Tropicana Village.  It was doomed to become a ghetto from the start.

The areas I talk about range from expensive to crazy-expensive. Santa Clara County (San Jose), anything from San Francisco to Monterey County, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties are very expensive. Anything near (not on $$$) the coast is pricey, but California is a big state. There are many places where homes are priced similar to where you live, some much less. I looked up real estate in your area, although similarly priced homes here may not be in an area as nice as the way Macomb Michigan looks. There are many homes here in Palm Springs priced in the $300K's and less. Movie stars, celebrities and the wealthy are a minority,  and they are only here in the winter. Poor people like me have to stay all year and get french-fried in the summer. 

Your father sounds like he was a terrific guy. Unfortunately in today's world it often takes at least two incomes and often multiple jobs to support a family of 3 or 4 even in the poorest of neighborhoods, and that includes both home owners and renters alike.

And Joe, the sad thing about the renovations that have been done in RR is that almost all aren't architecturally compatible with the original homes that surround them.  I see precious few of these types of homes in Cupertino and Santa Clara that have undergone renovations that retain the original style.

Back in 1990 when Dave and I scraped together a down payment on a drab, funky 1957 home on the Los Gatos border that needed serious TLC, we thought $245K was a lot to take on but we also knew a piece of Bay Area real estate was the best investment we'd ever make -- and now it's helping to finance Dave's assisted living accommodations almost 30 years later.  That same home would go for $1M today even if it needed some work because of its desirable school district.