We Finally Got a Piece of the Pie
There once was a TV sitcom about an upwardly mobile African-American family called The Jeffersons that ran from 1975 to 1985. (It was a spinoff from All in the Family, if you care about that sort of thing.) This was the theme song:
Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
George and Louise Jefferson moved from a duet home in working-class Queens to a big apartment in a ritzy doorman building, somewhere in Manhattan’s East Side. Can you imagine them singing that song of triumph and accomplishment if they had found the way to San Jose instead? No, neither can I. Too bad nobody told the developer who brought us today’s featured listing.
360 MARKET St, Unit 3I, San Jose, CA 95113
$529,900
Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,345
$/Sq. Ft.: $394
Lot Size: -
Property Type: Condominium
Style: Contemporary
Stories: 9+ (High Rise)
Year Built: 2007
Community: Central San Jose
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 81027052
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 21 daysDestined to become an iconic landmark rising 23 stories above San Jose’s fashionably city center, these 213 exquisite one-, two- and three-bedroom residences are available for occupancy! 24/7 doorman, rooftop pool with spa, gym, and clubroom. Sales Center open daily 11am – 6pm, closed Wednesdays.
San Jose is definitely short of iconic landmarks. There’s the statue of Quetzalcoatl, and there’s, um… I suppose we should cheer The Mark Company for even trying.
Fish don’t fry in the kitchen;
Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin’,
Just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues,
Gettin’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby,
There ain’t nothin wrong with that.
You might ask, “Why is anyone opening a luxury apartment tower in the middle of the worst economic situation since the 1930s, where there weren’t even any TV sitcoms?” And there is a very good answer to that question! 360 Residences started taking deposits in 2007! Remember 2007? Anyone who could fog a mirror could get a loan, and anyone did. And that is why someone thought there ought to be a luxury apartment tower in downtown San Jose. Maybe they figured the Jeffersons would get tired of New York winters and surly sidewalk denizens, but still would want to live down the hall from wacky neighbors and a tip-cadging doorman.
Rosy views were still the norm in 2007, and here’s what the project director of another luxury apartment building in San Jose had to say about the economy, back in 2008:
McGoff also noted the depressing effect of the housing slump on San Jose, but suggested at least some of the problem is political, rather than economic.
“It’s the nature of the politics of a presidential election cycle that everyone is just holding off until the outcome,” he says. “I still think it’s a very good market in San Jose, but it’s at a time and a place where people are hedging their bets.”
Yes, you could say bets were being hedged, 360 Residences was delayed for many reasons including a building inspectors strike and soil liquefaction onsite. Oh, and some problems with the lender and two million dollars worth of liens. You know it’s not a good day when the promised financing on your huge construction project is taken over by the FDIC.
Despite selling 90 of the units, the economic downturn has led some would-be buyers to move on and (unsuccessfully) ask for their deposits back. But their loss is your gain, as prices have come down! 20 percent instant equity, baby!
Don’t quite like this unit? Check out the different apartment types available if you want to be movin’ on up. Perhaps you’d like to be more in the sky than this third-floor unit. Perhaps you can! There are 213 to choose from, including six penthouses, and one has to have your name on it! It better! Association fees are $655 a month for this two-bedroom condo. Now how long will that pool will stay heated if nobody moves in and starts paying them?
Ralph the doorman says please move in, he needs the tips.
Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:13 am
This is nothing, *NOTHING* compared to what Irvine Renter over at the Irvine Housing Blog calls the “North Korea Towers.”
A real estate debacle unmatched by anything (except Stuyvesant town in NY, but that’s also so big it’s got its own zip code).
http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/michelson-towers-airport-area-irvine/
Check out the price history on this particular unit!
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/3131-Michelson-Dr-92612/unit-301/home/7219088
MIND BOGGLING! SOMEONE PAID NEARLY A MILLION DOLLARS FOR A CONDO BY AN AIRPORT!
June 24th, 2010 at 8:43 am
How many light years away is Irving from the RBA?
June 24th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
But it’s only $394/sf! So cheap you can buy it for your kid to go to SJ State. lol
June 24th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
But it’s only $394/sf! So cheap you can buy it for your kid to go to SJ State. lol
Your kid is going to be working 20 hours a week to pay the Association fees. And if they’ve only sold 30 or so condos out of 213, watch the fees escalate to $6500 a month.
ES, nice write-up on IHB, thanks. Good to see you here again.
June 24th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I am seriously thinking of going after this house. I don’t know why, but I have a good feeling about it. Nothing says “location location location” like a possible small eatery a block from the Shark Tank or Caltrain station..
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Jose/75-S-Autumn-St-95110/home/799381
June 24th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
That would make a great burbed post, sonarrat. It would be weird, though, if one of the featured crapboxes here ended up having a burbed regular as the owner. Let me know if I should write this place up or leave it alone for you to purchase.
Nice price, though!
I’m familiar with this neighborhood, we go to Poor House Bistro for the Sunday live music. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for the food!
June 24th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
If you want a Burbed post – http://www.redfin.com/CA/Fremont/41752-Vargas-Rd-94539/home/876039
June 24th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
re #5: Sonar that’s $245 sqft for a contractor’s special?
Run away.. RUN…
June 24th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
If you want a Burbed post – http://www.redfin.com/CA/Fremont/41752-Vargas-Rd-94539/home/876039
Fremont? When are you going to trade up?
June 24th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
In the condo complex I moved to now a 3bd only slightly larger than this and on the ground floor would cost you ~$520K, this is in Foster City, and the place was built in 1965 and there is currently construction. I only pay $800/mo for my share of the rent, so I’m not complaining, but it goes to show you that San Jose is much more affordable than most of the mid-peninsula.
June 24th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
cardinal can you find a unit for sale and check what the HOA fees are? I suspect they are not $650/month.
June 24th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
anon: reduced to $204 a square foot!
June 24th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
There’s an ad out by 360 saying they are 50% sold out.
June 24th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
You guys are all short-sighted. Think about the value when BART goes all the way to downtown San José!
June 24th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
#7, is that MC Hammer’s old house?
Where’s my parachute pants? Can’t touch this!
June 25th, 2010 at 12:08 am
cardinal can you find a unit for sale and check what the HOA fees are? I suspect they are not $650/month.
The HOA fees for the 3 bedrooms are $500/mo here, a lot of condo complexes around here have high HOA fees, somehow they didn’t foresee that condos built in the 1960s don’t last forever without replacing some things, it is lower than $650, but not by much.
The 360 is a bit south of where you probably want to be (unless you’re going to a conference), the restaurants and shopping downtown is all north of here, the only high rise I think has a worse location downtown is City Heights.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:53 am
>>the restaurants and shopping downtown is all north of here
Come on guys. Is there any worthy restaurant and shopping to speak of in downtown San Jose?
June 25th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Any real Chef would definitely work in the RBA, no matter if he lives outside of the RBA. And Real Shoppers? Those are only found in the RBA. Besides, who would work at a shop outside of the RBA? Isn’t there some sort of requirement to be a Real worker you must work in the Real RBA? If you work and live in the RBA, then you are a Real Person. Please be aware, however, that to ensure you are a true proper Real Person, you should have a burial plot in Palo Alto.
June 27th, 2010 at 12:24 am
the Jeffersons: a reminder of how much the 70s s*cked. and now I can’t get that crappy tune out of my head.
June 27th, 2010 at 2:15 am
Tuno, at least the 70s weren’t as bad as the 00s when everyone was pretending they were rich off borrowed money…
June 27th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
anon, the seventies – my formative decade – included Jimmy Carter, Whip Inflation Now buttons, The Bicentennial, double digit inflation, gas lines, disco, Rupert Holmes (the Pina Colada Song) parental divorce, a stunningly high crime rate, the collapse of the Rust Belt – oh, boy.
did you actually live through the 70s??
June 27th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Tuno, I still have a WIN button in an envelope from The White House.
Don’t forget: Klick-Klacks, toe socks, encounter sessions, est, head shops, and Play That Funky Music, White Boy by Wild Cherry (I think).
And punk as disco’s antithesis. And safety pins through earlobes… and worse places.
Heck I remember when Genesis hadn’t sold out yet and were an arty progressive band almost nobody ever heard of.
As for housing, there were really high interest mortgages and the jerks who brought Prop 13 due to inflation leading to high taxes on pensioners. If Prop 13 only applied to people on fixed incomes, I wouldn’t hate it with a passion that starts wildfires every July and makes volcanos suffer second-degree burns.
June 27th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Oh god I almost forgot:
FORD TO NYC: DROP DEAD!
Nobody was buying property in NYC in the late 70s. You said it about the crime rate. It was all those excess baby boomers.
June 27th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Geezus. I thought I am old. You guys need some Depends. Gimme your address and I’ll send you a few.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Toe Socks – AGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!
Alex, we’ve been old ever since the 70s. the decade did it to us. it was like the Great Depression of Aesthetics.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
The 70′s was the best of times.
If this is the 70′s, you can watch Magic Johnson play basketball.
If this is the 70′s, you can buy British and Italian sports cars that are never made again.
If this is the 70′s, you can watch the Eagles and Rolling Stones perform live at their prime, and listen to Casey Kasem’s top 40 every Sunday morning.
If this is the 70′s, your kid can be watching new episodes of Space Ghost, Bird Man, and Super Friends.
If this is the 70′s, you can probably afford Palo Alto.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Depends? This is the 70s! They had just come out with Pampers! And they hadn’t figured out that they didn’t need to be rectangular like a cloth diaper!
Here’s the Ford to City: Drop Dead story, complete with the Daily News headline. NYC was about to declare bankruptcy because it couldn’t pay back its municipal bonds. 2 months later they were bailed out after all and repaid the federal loans with interest.
Heh heh. Remember Orange County and some muni bonds?
And to make you really sick, three words from the 70s. The Village People.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
I’m OK with the Village People, or the AMC Pacer, or the Soviet Union and Chairman Mao keeping majority of the world from being competitive. At least there’s no need to deal with outsourcing.
June 28th, 2010 at 4:50 am
RE, what an arbiter of taste you are (music and cars). But you’re “okay” with the Soviet Union? Why, did your family profit from the arms race or something? I can’t fathom any other reason you would say that.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am
nomadic,
It’s already explained above. The U.S. had free reign for quite due to the Soviet Union leading half the world astray into an uncompetitive system.
June 28th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Ah, so you were okay with the oppression of half the world because it suited you personally?
June 28th, 2010 at 10:18 am
nomadic, are you still stuck in the 60s? Have you forgotten the nickname for the 70s? It was “the me decade.”
And if you hated the Pacer (which looked like a pregnant roller skate), how about the Gremlin? Heh. But I admit enjoying the AMX. Oh what am I talking about, you’re still driving a VW microbus, right?
June 28th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
I downsized to a bug. Classic, of course – not girly like the new ones.
June 28th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I bet you got the option with the bud vase and you put a daisy in it.
June 28th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Damn birkenstock-clad, bong-toking, pony-tailed hippies.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
>>Ah, so you were okay with the oppression of half the world because it suited you personally?
By your philosophy, you must be a supporter of invading Iraq? What about oppressions in Iran, in North Korea, in Africa? How many wars do you want to start?
I’m in favor of taking care of business at home, and letting other countries take care of their own business.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
In the cases of Rwanda, Yougoslavia or indeed WW2, and granted that hindsight’s benefit does not require one to be a visionary leader to pick these examples, there is a strong ethical case against letting other countries “take care of their own business”.
It’s easier to overlook genocide when the victims are perceived to be of another “race”, especially if there is nothing to gain at home.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
By your philosophy, you must be a supporter of invading Iraq?
—–
The reason for invading Iraq was not about stopping oppression. It was about Iraq’s fictitious nuclear, chemical and biological weapon, as described by “Curveball”. And Iraq’s alleged connection to 9/11.
Some people have very short memory.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
The only way you can be in a position to enforce change elsewhere is if you take care of your own business first. It’s like the jokers in this forum (anon, Pralay, the usual suspects) trying to fight me on real estate matters. I’m sorry, but these priced out forever folks need to do something about their own problem first before they can tell anyone else what is right.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
>>The reason for invading Iraq was not about stopping oppression. It was about Iraq’s fictitious nuclear, chemical and biological weapon, as described by “Curveball”. And Iraq’s alleged connection to 9/11.
Right. That surely makes for a much stronger argument.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
At least there’s no need to deal with outsourcing.
—–
Translation: It sucks to be at “the top of the food chain” and being “focused on innovation and management”.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Right. That surely makes for a much stronger argument.
—-
LOL! In Real Estater’s world: Lie = “stronger”.
But that’s Real Estater’s world of lies – we all know too well.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Let’s review some history:
Who taught the Japanese how to make cars?
Who taught the Indians how to program computers?
Who taught the Chinese how to manufacture the iPhone?
Why do we insist on doing all these things to invite competition upon ourselves?
Where would these countries be today if the U.S. simply left them alone? I can assure you they won’t catch up to us in 100 years.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I’m sorry, but these priced out forever folks need to do something about their own problem first before they can tell anyone else what is right.
It surely sucks to be a person who can’t reason.
—–
June 29th, 2010 at 12:01 am
As long as I’m feeling philosophical…
Why do we allow students from all over the world come study at our Universities?
Why do we let all these foreigners immigrate here and price out the American buyers? Don’t get me wrong. I’m OK with it since they help to perpetuate home appreciation. However, what’s the benefit from a national perspective?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:03 am
Who taught the Japanese how to make cars? Japanese
Who taught the Indians how to program computers? Indians
Who taught the Chinese how to manufacture the iPhone? Chinese
June 29th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Hey this is fun! Okay, my turn! Who taught Real Estate agents how to predict the future? Nobody!
June 29th, 2010 at 12:07 am
“However, what’s the benefit from a national perspective?”
What’s the benefit of Brown v. Board of Education?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:09 am
#45 – There’s a equally fair share of American students who study abroad as well. In fact, that’s more or less the premise behind the J-1 visa – exchange program between countries. No doubt a visa without benefit from a national perspective!
June 29th, 2010 at 12:14 am
Why do we allow students from all over the world come study at our Universities?
—–
Because we love Nobel laureates.
—–
Why do we let all these foreigners immigrate here and price out the American buyers?
—–
Because we love Nobel laureates.
——
However, what’s the benefit from a national perspective?
—–
Because we love Nobel laureates.
June 29th, 2010 at 12:14 am
“There’s a equally fair share of American students who study abroad as well.”
It’s not equal. Education is one product that the United States Exports more than it imports. On the one hand we have people who complain about “balance of trade,” yet on the other hand we have Real Estater complaining that we sell something we actually export?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:17 am
Hey this is fun! Okay, my turn! Who taught Real Estate agents how to predict the future? Nobody!
—–
My turn now. Who taught Real Estater how to spell Manhatten?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:18 am
Facts, SEA? Balance of short-term students/interns/au pair/etc. imported versus exported, as a share of the overall student population of the respective countries?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:22 am
I thought the answer to all the questions in #50 was “cash at the sidelines.”
June 29th, 2010 at 12:24 am
>>However, what’s the benefit from a national perspective?”
What’s the benefit of Brown v. Board of Education?
Monsieur, à quoi peut bien servir l’enfant qui vient de naître?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:33 am
madhaus- Thanks for the smile!
June 29th, 2010 at 12:37 am
DreamT- I don’t have the sources at my finger tips right now, but next time I read such, I will be sure and post the source here. And I’ll post the information even if it does not support the last report I read. Maybe it’s changed?
June 29th, 2010 at 12:49 am
SEA, would love to read the report(s), regardless of the conclusion. Thanks
June 29th, 2010 at 6:59 am
#46: who taught the Japanese to build cars the whole world would buy? I would argue it was W. Edwards Deming.
June 29th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Then of course they took the concepts to a whole new level.