House-hunting in Silicon Valley: tech's newly rich fuel a spectacle of excess

As flamenco dancers and baristas help show off multimillion-dollar homes, there is no longer room for the middle class

In Silicon Valley, an open house can be more than an open house. At a six-bedroom, seven-bath home in the town of Menlo Park, a flamenco dancer swirled and a guitarist fingerpicked in a kitchen alcove. Outside, pesto pizza was pulled from the pizza oven. A face painter splotched unicorns on pudgy cheeks. A barista whipped up lattes. There were squishy toys for kids and videos of the house for potential homebuyers, who could keep the video-players.

"We mailed brochures to 5,000 homes, including one entirely in Mandarin," said Michael Repka, CEO of DeLeon Realty, who padded around the house, along with everyone else, in booties, so as not to scratch the wood floors. Three days later, the Flamenco dancing paid off. The house sold for $6.82m, which was $332,000 above the asking price.