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820 52nd St

Ahead of renting and index funds on our cautious numbers. Whether it has enough room to pass our bar wasn't measured here.

94608 · East Bay

Underwritten as of 2026-09-02 · record v5

Published at our defaults: House-Hack wins by $256,148 · S&P breakeven 12.8% · crash floor 0% full underwriting, cautious case

C+ C+ — wins the cautious case; the S&P 500 would need close to 13% a year to tie.

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The three cases

ConservativeBaseOptimistic
VerdictHouse-HackHouse-HackHouse-Hack
Margin vs the S&P path+$256,148+$603,865+$1,000,614
Rent while you live in one unit$5,000/mo$5,400/mo$5,800/mo
Rent after you move out$8,300/mo$9,200/mo$10,250/mo
Modeled appreciation2.5%/yr4.0%/yr5.5%/yr
Repairs allowance$15,000$8,000$0
S&P breakeven12.8%15.9%18.7%
Crash floor0%-2.1%-5.1%
Wealth at year 10$1,368,019$1,715,736$2,112,485
If you sold at year 10$1,310,480$1,649,199$2,035,704

Conservative leads; base and optimistic are the accompanying range, never the headline. Margin is vs. investing the same money in the S&P 500; the S&P breakeven is the yearly stock return that would tie it, and the crash floor is the yearly appreciation below which the deal loses. Wealth at year 10 counts home equity at full value; the sold line subtracts selling costs.

Open these numbers in the calculator → Every slider starts at this page's inputs; change any of them and the verdict re-runs at yours.

Property facts

Asking price $899,000
Units 3
Beds / baths 8 / 3
Square feet 3,848
Year built 1920
Property type Multi-Family
Days on market 154
Neighborhood Golden Gate / NOBE
Strategy lane small-multifamily
Nearest catalyst San Pablo Ave Bus + Bike Lanes corridor (0.79 mi)
Modeled appreciation 4.0%/yr

Unit count verified: 3 units, corroborated by county assessor records and the listing itself.

small-multifamily — Golden Gate / NOBE · 0.79 mi from San Pablo Ave Bus + Bike Lanes corridor.

If the market turns

Modeled appreciation is an assumption, so we replayed this deal against history: every 10-year window in the federal house-price index for Alameda County (41 windows), each one swapping its actual price path in for our modeled appreciation.

History replayYearsEnds vs the never-buy path
Worst window1989→1999+$9,799
Median window2014→2024+$673,388
Best window1996→2006+$1,946,172

None of the 41 windows ended behind the never-buy path.

Replay the 2008 crash as it hit this area and the deal ends year 10 $168,322 behind the never-buy path; the deepest point comes in year 6, $391,582 behind.

These windows track Alameda County as a whole. Within the county, individual ZIPs' realized 10-year outcomes typically differed from the county's by about ±1.2 points/yr — one zip-decade in ten differed by ±3.5 points/yr or more, and the largest gap since 1975 was 5.5 points/yr. A specific building varies more than its ZIP, not less.

Where these numbers come from

Of the 11 inputs behind this analysis, 4 trace to evidence (our listing feed, area comps, county records); 4 are standing conventions; 3 are derived from other inputs.

  • Purchase price: our listing feed · corroborated
  • Rent while you live in one unit: our listing feed · single source
  • Rent after you move out: derived from other inputs here · single source
  • The rent you would pay on the never-buy path: derived from other inputs here · single source
  • Property tax rate: our listing feed · single source
  • Unit count: county assessor records · corroborated

A standing convention is a deliberate modeling choice we apply to every deal. We flag it rather than dress it up as evidence.

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Record v5 · engine aafb236 · profile fha-house-hack