Comments on: Why “california bay area home price” will never fall

By: RedSquid

RedSquid — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:54:51 +0000

Just ask my brother, bought a really nice Eichler in Mountain View in 1990 and sold 4 years later for 20% loss – (he got married and her house was better).
His former house would now sell for about $1 Million … and is far more overpriced and unaffordable than when he bought, even though the interest rates are incredibly low.
It will take years before these prices can rise again.

By: David

David — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:43:57 +0000

The home price will never fall? Take a look at what happened from 1989-1998.

How quickly you forget.

7 years (give or take) of fat, 7 years of lean. Looking forward to another 5 years of dropping prices.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:51:07 +0000

sonarrat: Hah, yes, that was a topic of the Mr Roadshow column a couple weeks ago…apparently the San Jose roads department didn’t install a traffic-light control properly, and it resets every time the train goes by. As a result, First Street has about four times as much green light as it ought to have.

By: sonarrat

sonarrat — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:31:40 +0000

I used to work at Trimble & Junction. The light-rail running on First Street really made it time-consuming to get around, and it takes too long to ride from Caltrain. Grr…

By: burbed

burbed — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:37:05 +0000

Good thing we build companies far away from light rail because that’s prime retail real estate space.

Really what they should do is build more automalls next to light rail, and then build housing over the automalls.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:09:07 +0000

On the other hand, the city planners doing the rezoning invariably assume that most of the new residents would take the Light Rail to work. This is being used as a justification to cram a few thousand condo units into the Empty Quarter between 101, First Street, and Trimble.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:04:15 +0000

Well it’s true that traffic would increase with higher density housing. The home owners are using that as an excuse, but unfortunately even if you did allow the construction the roads wouldn’t keep up. It’s just that the tree huggers are opposed to opening up the carpool lane, and widening the roads.

By: The Hermit

The Hermit — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 04:02:47 +0000

dont be a hater but a lover

By: burbed

burbed — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:13:30 +0000

>>Tear down all those empty office buildings in Sunnyvale and re-zone it residential, allow high-density housing and you’d actually see rationality return to the local market (now that lenders aren’t giving loans to anyone with a pulse).

Fortunately, local homeowners are trained to shout “TRAFFIC! CHANGE OF OUR CITY’S CHARACTER! TRAFFIC!” whenever stuff like that is proposed.

So we can be sure there won’t be new housing built.

Repeal Prop 13? Why do you hate our freedom?

By: nc mortgages

nc mortgages — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:28:43 +0000

cant we all just get along

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:11:44 +0000

That last part (about the stock options and the other stuff) wasn’t from me. It’s clearly separated by a big quote box, and was intended to be satirical, obviously.

I’m not in favor of forcing old people out of their houses, but it’s natural in other parts of the country for people who are no longer working to sell their homes and move into some place smaller, and that doesn’t happen here because of Prop 13. It drives up prices for everyone else. It’s even worse when those benefits are given to land lords, children of buyers, and even grandchildren of buyers.

Do you actually live here? Drive along the 101, 237, or down Mathilda avenue any time and you’ll see plenty of available land that is currently zoned commercial. Tear down all those empty office buildings in Sunnyvale and re-zone it residential, allow high-density housing and you’d actually see rationality return to the local market (now that lenders aren’t giving loans to anyone with a pulse).

The fact that a person making over $100,000 a year can’t afford a 2 bedroom condo here is just not natural. People have been so brainwashed by real estate “professionals” that they’re willingly dropping more than half of their incomes to “own” 40 year old town houses. Fix the zoning and building regulations, get rid of prop 13, and price to income ratios will probably be right back where they were in the 70s.

By: 3rd Generation

3rd Generation — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:17:08 +0000

I’m really not exactly sure how to respond…

“Thanks to Prop 13 and reverse mortgages we aren’t seeing old people being “forced” to sell.”
-I guess he wants me to “force” my 75 y/o mother out of her house that she has spent a lifetime in RIGHT NOW so a ‘transaction’ occurs and yuppie swine can move in. Do you laugh at people in wheelchairs too?

“Greedy owners who are overly concerned with property values refuse to allow any significant new development, despite the huge swaths of unused land all throughout the bay area cities.”
-Like, where are you talking about?

“There’s also the fact that most buyers don’t rely on paychecks – everyone has stock and stock options that are soaring.”
-Incorrect.

“Long story short: be prepared to spend a lot, to get very little, in a suburb. Prices are set to take off.”

-Kevin, get professional help, and soon. There are other careers besides pimping yourself out and ’selling’ Real Estate.

By: ex-sunnyvale-renter

ex-sunnyvale-renter — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:44:39 +0000

Everyone has stock options that are soaring. Everyone.