“Hayward is not in the Bay Area”
At the end of last year, I posted a map of The Real Bay Area:
Unfortunately, I put “The Real Bay Area” too close to Alameda – I meant to put it on the other side of SF. Oops.
That said, Burbed reader Bill had this to say:
Mr Burbed
Take a look at these, average drop from last sale to listing price 33%. Since they are not likely to sell for listing price, the final haircut for the bank/mortgage investors will be lower. Not sure the borrowers are likely to be losing anything.
These were not hard at all to find. In Oakland, Hayward, San Leandro a huge portion of the houses currently on the market were purchased in 2005-2007 at amazingly high prices. You have to wonder how much fraud was going on. DId people really think a 2 and 1 in Hayward was worth 500K?
THe reason I picked Hayward is that it is 30-40 mins from SJ and SF. So it is in the same market as the “prime” parts of the Bay Area. Not saying that people who are looking in Burlingame are also looking in Hayward. But the two markets are on the same ladder. Right now a person who would have moved up from Hayward to Fremont cant do it. Some one who would have moved up from Fremont to San Mateo wont be able to do it, San Mateo to San Carlos, San Carlos to Burlingame. etc
Anyhow, you might want to use in a post – “Hayward is not the Bay Area”
http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1280882
535K to 310Khttp://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1157448
425K to 329Khttp://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1338661
535K to 350Khttp://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1089064
498K to 360Khttp://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1077877
540K to 350K
While I don’t agree that Hayward is 30-40 min from SJ or SF (except at 2:30am and if you has a big sticker that says “POWERED BY V-TEC”), it is true that it’s not too far from the biotech hub in SSF. And… possibly the world’s most important two cities: Mountain View and Palo Alto.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever actually stopped in Hayward – any readers from there?
January 24th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hilarious! And I love the Silly-Con Valley orientation of the hysteria, it will be fun watching this area eventually go back to growing prunes.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Hayward is a shithole. I grew up there. It used to be white trash in the late 70s early 80s, and has continued to be the armpit of the bay area. I could not fricken believe when houses on my old street were selling for 500k. So not worth it. Especially since drugs, gangs, and murders are the norm.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I received an email from Mercurynews a few months ago. It was about some new home sales in Hayward during a weekend.
The tittle said:
“You snooze, you lose!”
Wanna know about “Hayward living”?
Take a look: http://www.liveinhayward.com/
January 24th, 2008 at 11:10 am
HAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA I love that liveinhawyard link. I challenge anyone to find hot women drinking margaritas anywhere in hayward. HAHAHAHA.. Check the gallery to see what I mean. At least these communities are not west of mission blvd where I grew up. Those neighborhoods are the worst. Slightly up the hill where these communities are is marginally better, but still not great.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Eww even that corporate type site talks about “diverse living” that’s a code word for “it’s a shithole, but darn it, it’s OUR shithole” lol
January 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Haywire/Hayweird is no good, but Castro Valley is decent and Pleasanton is really giving the “Real Bay Area” a run for its money lately. You can’t completely write off the East Bay.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Um personally I refer to the place as the Haystack. CV, has pockets of decent places, but it also sucks. Tri-valley: Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Dublin are good.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
There is credible evidence that Hayward will be the epi-center of the next major earthquake in the Bay Area.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Is Hayward really that bad? I mean, East San Jose bad? Really?
(Which reminds me Burbed – East San Jose is SO not the Bay Area. You can get a 3br there for $450k now! I mean really!)
January 24th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Yes East san jose bad. Just drive around west of mission blvd. Tennyson, jackson, A Street, etc etc. You’ll see.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:52 am
It’s not HAYWARD,
It’s HAYWEIRD.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I lived in Hayweird for several years in one of those HUGE apt complexes off Mission. The most memorable things of that period were the variety of mullets, Harleys rumbling up & down Mission 24 hours a day, and a dozen of the apartments in the complex were discovered to be functioning meth labs. Oh, almost forgot 3 of our cars were stolen in six years.
But it was cheap.
January 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Ex sunnyvale renter says the area will eventually go back to growing prunes. Oh we could only dream, a return to the agricultural past would be an upgrade in my opinion. Have you ever seen any of the old pictures of the Santa Clara Valley ( or Hayward for that matter) during more rural times? Beats the hell out of wornout 60 year old shacks and industrial slums.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hayward is actually OK. Not all of it, but parts of it. There are real people who live in Hayward and it is diverse, which is refreshing when compared to pleasanton. Speaking of home values, they are not as good as they were, but it is in the heart of the bay, you can get to many surrounding areas quickly, it’s right on bart and it still has open spaces. It has great thrift stores that are mainly undiscovered because no one comes out this way. If you want to venture out of the beaten path, there are some interesting things. It has a worse rep than reality is. Like there’s no crime in cool places like the city, Berkeley or Oakland? Crime is a part of every urban area.