It's A Snip At 800K...

[Lord Jim]

Dale or Joe, if you're looking for a new house, here's a little fixer-upper you can pick up for a song:

How bad are Bay Area home prices? A burned-out house is listed for $800,000



What can $800,000 get you in the Bay Area’s red-hot housing market?

In San Jose’s desirable Willow Glen neighborhood, that sum will land you a tiny, burned-out shell of a home. Unless, of course, the property follows the current trend by selling for over the listing price.

The owner of the 1,066 square-foot home, which was all but destroyed in a fire two years ago, listed the property for sale at midnight Thursday for $799,000. For some, the price tag has come to symbolize the runaway property values that are making it increasingly difficult for Silicon Valley renters and new arrivals to afford a home here. But local real estate agents say in this market, there’s nothing extraordinary about the price.

“It’s a great location,” said Holly Barr of the Sereno Group, the realtor who is selling the property. “It’s an easy commute. There’s a great downtown, walkability, people with kids and their dogs and tree-lined streets. It’s where people want to be.”

Several houses on that street have sold for $1.6 million, and Zillow estimates the home’s worth more than $1 million. The home is about a mile from the area where Google plans to build a new campus.

“As crazy as it sounds, I’m not surprised by it,” realtor John Espinosa of Morgan Hill-based Heritage Realty Group said of the price tag. “It’s probably what I would do as well if I was listing that property.”

Barr posted a photo of the burned house and its price on the Willow Glen Charm Facebook page Monday night, sparking a quick response from shocked observers. The post has been shared nearly 1,000 times, and Barr says about 20 people have contacted her so far to express interest in the property. She called the response “overwhelming.”

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/04/12/h ... or-800000/

[BoSoxGal]

While I was in law school, I was urged by two different friends to consider settling after graduation in either SF or Seattle. I’ve never been to either, would really like to visit someday and sure I’ll love them both - but damn am I glad I didn’t relocate there, as I can’t think of any enjoyable job I have the skills to do where I wouldn’t be homeless or couch-surfing in that housing market.

Major cities all over are having housing crises; rents where I live are painful enough, I’m grateful to have the very happy co-housing situation I’m currently in. I used to dream of one day living in Boston or one of the nice surrounding burbs, but I can’t imagine affording anyplace nice up that way, the rents are simply insane. I guess I just can’t stomach the idea of spending 50% or more of my income on housing - the only housing worth that would be a cottage on the beach!

[dales]

No thanks, Jim.

I'm happy living in Pleasant Hill in my home that's paid for.

[Joe Guy]

Around here nowadays people are buying older homes, tearing them down and squeezing all new two story houses on the property. They probably build higher in some places but that's the highest allowed in my area. That one in the picture will be a good deal for someone because there's not much left to tear down. It will sell easily for 1.2 million. Probably more.

The Chinese and the techies (and the Chinese techies) are doing a lot of the buying here in silicon valley. It's an invasion of the rich and home prices are continuing to rise with no end in sight.

[RayThom]

I live in a two bedroom apartment with geothermal heat pump in a newly constructed development in one of the wealthiest counties in the USA. My rent is $725 monthly. I suspect a similar unit in the SF Bay area would probably go for at least three times more than I pay.

My place in the one under the long porch roof.


All things considered, I feel the NE (excluding NYC) gives people the best, and safest, housing opportunities.

[dales]

All things considered, I feel the NE (excluding NYC) gives people the best, and safest, housing opportunities.

Apart from the freezing cold winters and humidity drenched summers, you might be right.

I love the SF Bay Area, beautiful weather and there's always something happening.

Besides - - - I only live a few hours from rubato.


What's not to like?

[Long Run]

While I was in law school, I was urged by two different friends to consider settling after graduation in either SF or Seattle. I’ve never been to either, would really like to visit someday and sure I’ll love them both - but damn am I glad I didn’t relocate there, as I can’t think of any enjoyable job I have the skills to do where I wouldn’t be homeless or couch-surfing in that housing market.

Except maybe the same friends would have urged you to buy a home, in which case you'd now be a real estate millionaire.

eta: If my parents had kept the first house they bought in the 1960s in Cupertino, it would now be worth 100 times what they paid for it.

[RayThom]

"IF"

And 'if' my aunt had testicles she'd be my uncle.

[dales]

eta: If my parents had kept the first house they bought in the 1960s in Cupertino, it would now be worth 100 times what they paid for it.

A home we lived in Belmont (San Mateo County) was purchased by my father in 1960 for around 30k dollars. Now it is valued at a million and a half.

Cupertino is the epicenter of home valuation in Santa Clara County. Hordes of wealthy Chinese/Indians have pushed home valuation sky high.

And don't forget the Apple "Space ship" campus.

[Jarlaxle]

I am so happy I dumped my house...not worth it anymore.

[PMS Princess]

My grandparents bought this house in the 1960s and it's under prop 13. This place hasn't changed much at all since then. You get the beach crowd for a bit but it's great off season.

BSG, I feel the same way about paying that much salary for anything. The newest vehicles I own is a '93 Infiniti and '15 Suzuki.

And if you still want to visit the West Coast, you are welcome to stay here! Not quite the cottage on the beach but about 3 blocks away.

[BoSoxGal]

dales, I’ve lived in the northeast, mid Atlantic, southwest and mountain west and in my experience, the southwest has the most abundant, affordable, ‘nice’ housing for folks in the rental market. Lots and lots of apartment complexes and condo communities with numerous amenities at reasonably affordable rates; but then there’s the godawful heat and the likelihood that later in this century water will be a real problem.

My experiences finding housing in New England - Maine & Massachusetts - lots of aging housing stock that is overpriced and often in need of much TLC. One of the reasons I moved into the cohousing market was the opportunity to rent for much less in a much nicer setting, with built-in human company, a plus for me at the moment.

PMS, I just might take you up on that offer someday!

[Joe Guy]

I..... My rent is $725 monthly. I suspect a similar unit in the SF Bay area would probably go for at least three times more than I pay......

That wouldn't surprise me. In San Mateo County, for $725.00, you'd have to share a single room in an active crack house that was built on top of a toxic dump and is located next to highly traveled train tracks in an industrial area where sarin gas is manufactured.

[Jarlaxle]

dales, I’ve lived in the northeast, mid Atlantic, southwest and mountain west and in my experience, the southwest has the most abundant, affordable, ‘nice’ housing for folks in the rental market. Lots and lots of apartment complexes and condo communities with numerous amenities at reasonably affordable rates; but then there’s the godawful heat and the likelihood that later in this century water will be a real problem.

My experiences finding housing in New England - Maine & Massachusetts - lots of aging housing stock that is overpriced and often in need of much TLC. One of the reasons I moved into the cohousing market was the opportunity to rent for much less in a much nicer setting, with built-in human company, a plus for me at the moment.

PMS, I just might take you up on that offer someday!

Because someone has to ask: cohousing?

[dales]

dales, I’ve lived in the northeast, mid Atlantic, southwest and mountain west and in my experience, the southwest has the most abundant, affordable, ‘nice’ housing for folks in the rental market.

The southwest is the best area.

My late aunt lived in Tucson since the 1940's.

She loved the desert.

She and her late husband were major benefactors of the Desert Museum in Tucson.

[Gob]

Spent the weekend with friends here...



Small bungalows there fetch £2,500,000, and are then knocked down and McMansions built.

I won the grand national sweep at my mate's local. Which was nice.

[rubato]

The areas which overbuilt the most in the housing bubble have high vacancy rates and cheaper rents. Mostly inland, a lot of it desert. Merced , Bakersfield, Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula, Coachella.


Yrs,
Rubato

[Big RR]

I looked at rentals in the Bay area a few years back when I was considering a job there and, depending where you chose to live, some rental prices were reasonable (at least given the average salaries of companies in the area, if the internet is to be believed). However, prices to purchase homes were very high, even in places pretty far removed from the silicon valley region (I think people are willing to commute a lot more time there than in most other areas of the country). And as much as I like the area, it's certainly not a place to retire to.

In the 90s a friend and I looked into investing in buying real estate in East Palo Alto, which was a pretty run down and dangerous area only a few miles fro Palo Alto and Stanford. At that time properties could be acquired pretty cheaply, and they're worth a lot more now (we decided not to and both now have regrets). But that seems to be the last of the cheaper areas, at least south of San Francisco.

[rubato]

If you waited until retirement to buy in this area it would be challenging but if you bought here, paid down the principle, refinanced when rates dipped its not that difficult.

I had a Vietnamese colleague who commuted from Merced. She would drive up on Monday and stay in a shared room through the week and go home on Friday. I had another colleague who commuted from Los Banos every day because of housing greed. He wanted a larger home with a pool.


yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

It is true that, given the property tax structure (based on the purchase price, thanks to Howard Jarvis), people who bought a long time ago and pay down their mortgage might well have an easier time, but I wonder if we will see the same 30-40 years in the future. I would think something has to give.

I had a number of colleagues who commuted from Merced and Modesto to Mountainview (over 100 miles one way, I think--some did stay in the area 1-2 nights a week)) and a number of others who commuted from Gilroy (around 70 miles as I recall). Some were looking for bigger houses, but many were looking for something affordable and with reasonably good schools. But those commutes are horrible, especially with the way traffic is.