Housing in 2018: San Jose neighborhoods top `hot’ list
The last is in San Francisco.
Redfin experts say that’s largely because tech workers, even very well compensated ones, are getting priced out of the San Francisco Peninsula. Others are drawn by new jobs from companies such as Google and Apple — or by Google’s plans to build a downtown campus around San Jose’s largest transit hub, Diridon Station.
“While the San Francisco Peninsula has traditionally been the hottest of the hot places, we’re seeing it become unaffordable for even the tech giants that helped create its demand in the first place,” said Redfin Silicon Valley agent Kalena Masching.
Compared to Palo Alto, where the median sale price last year topped $2.5 million, and San Francisco, where the average home sold for $1.3 million, San Jose’s median home price of over $1 million (and rising) apparently looks like a deal.
Topping the list is San Jose’s Bucknall neighborhood, where the median sale price last year was $1.57 million and 100 percent of homes sold for above list price.
In recent weeks, Masching said, open houses have been swamped, homes have been getting 15 to 20 offers each, and people have taken off work to check out houses the moment they come on the market.
She’s also noticed something else: “What we’re seeing is a disregard for recent comparable sales and people deciding what the home is worth to them and just giving that as their offer.”
The demand for real estate in the South Bay has been well documented; late last year, Zillow predicted the San Jose metropolitan area would be the hottest housing market in the country in 2018. But that it landed nine neighborhoods out of 10 on Redfin’s latest list surprised even Redfin economist Nela Richardson.
The interest, she said, is fueled by a lack of housing supply throughout the Bay Area — and “speculative interest” in Google’s expansion. “Basically Google’s just extending its tentacles,” Richardson said, “and yet it’s having a dramatic effect on one city.”
Redfin created the list based on the increase in the number of homes marked as “favorites” in each area and the number of page views on Redfin.com.
As Redfin noted, this further uptick in interest will only put more pressure on the housing market.
In December, the San Jose area had the lowest rate of homes per sale that Redfin had ever recorded — anywhere in the country — and its home prices rose a whopping 31.9 percent from the previous year.