180-Square-Foot Palo Alto Shack Selling for $2 Million

Smack in the heart of one of America’s most expensive cities, a tiny 180-square-foot shack is listed for sale at $1.98 million.

The one-bedroom, one-bathroom Palo Alto-based shanty is situated next to a two-car garage. According to the Daily Mail, this prime piece of real estate is just a 12-minute drive from Stanford University and 25 minutes from Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters. The address is 829 La Para Avenue.

The shack, which was built in 1930, rests on 6,800 square feet of land, which is where the price for the property really stems from, as it provides the opportunity for the lucky purchaser to “build their dream home” on it, as the listing states in its description.

However, the size of that home might be limited due to a floor area ratio (FAR) measure that was enacted in 1991 when the City of Palo Alto adopted an anti-mansionization mandate that allows for homes to be built on just 30 percent of land that is over 5,000 square feet.

Accordingly, the Daily Mail points out that “the maximum floor area of a future home that could be built on the property is 2,816 square feet, which does not include a possible basement addition.

One resident in the coveted area said prices have almost doubled since he and his family moved to there in 2011.

Last month, a 764-square-foot rotting, wooden earthquake shack located close to San Francisco’s Mission district sold for $408,000.

The photograph accompanying this article has been corrected.

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