Buying a house around here sucks!

[Killroy1999]

So you're saying that it properties were priced relative to incomes that people would not have to commute such long distances? What a novel idea! Too bad that is not at all how it works...

bicycling 5-10mi to work vs. driving 30 miles does not make up for $300+/sqft price difference.

The stress of trying to beat traffic and the wasted time in a car is a huge cost. Its a good way to be overweight.

If you use the AAA cost of driving and drive 20 miles from home to work 5 days a week that is a $550/month. That cost driving cost could buy you another $100,000 of house.

I don't like commuter cities anyway, they just lead to redundant government services and more taxes.

 

[LabRat675]

But the price jumps 200,000 or more. And if you happen to work for one of the companies that offer private coaches, the stress and costs drop dramatically.

I'm not saying that I DONT want to continue living 5 miles from work. The point is that currently there is no way that I can afford to buy this close to work.

For example I was looking at a 1700 sqft house that is going somewhere in the high 500K's (i got out-bid). In Cupertino that size house is listed for 1.09Mil. That's a little more than $550/mo. I would say that they are also similarly equipped. Although the cheaper one was on a quieter street and newer.

 

[Traq]

What's all this bullcrap talk about the cost of commuting? Isn't this a motorcycle forum? I ride to work every damn day. That's like paying me to commute! Stress? HA! Stress reliever!

 

[Alan_Hepburn]

While I don't think Zillow is super accurate, I think they're right on the money with us. Ours was about $540k and we went into contract in May '11. Another house with our exact floorplan with less upgrades, and a year older just went for $625k. I just looked at Zillow and they have our estimate at $634k. Not a bad little chunk of equity after only two years.

Just talked to a car salesman who's also a realtor in Santa Clara. He said it's totally a seller's market at the moment. Just no inventory to sell, so what does come up goes fast and over asking price.

We just had a house appraised this week - Zillow lists it at $727K while the appraiser shows it at $780K. When we had it appraised this past February it appraised at around $730K, while Zillow listed it at around $680K.

 

[mercurial]

Zillow is like a broken clock, it's right twice a day.

It's good to be a home owner right now, I don't see the low inventory condition going away. The job market has stabilized but alot of people are stuck in their home (underwater) and won't sell until they reach the black, so that's a huge percentage of housing off the market. Less bullish on Silicon Valley long term, the home prices are completely over speculated by Chinese investors and way too dependent upon technology jobs, a highly cyclical industry. I'd feel a little better about the area if it was a nice place to live, but it's sprawly, generally ugly and over congested, and lacking in urban amenities.

 

[Lester Green]

I find that in my area Zillow prices are super inflated. the only real data to mine from is comps in your area if you want an accurate representation of what your property is worth.

 

[Valgar]

Comps in my area are jacked, the vast majority of stuff selling is distressed (short-sale, foreclosed, etc), so prices in my area are ridiculously low. Makes refinancing a pain in the ass.

 

[mike23w]

in the last 3 or 4 weeks, there's been a very noticeable increase in lower priced houses ($700k-$800k) on the peninsula.

this article "Existing Home Inventory is up 18.4% year-to-date on July 22nd" seems to confirm this observation

 

[Killroy1999]

Comps in my area are jacked, the vast majority of stuff selling is distressed (short-sale, foreclosed, etc), so prices in my area are ridiculously low. Makes refinancing a pain in the ass.

I had my townhouse appraised recently and I asked the appraiser to not comp ghetto area. He asked me what price I needed, I told him, and that is what I got. It seems wrong, but it helped me out a lot.

 

[stan23]

If I were to invest in real estate right now, I would buy Morgan Hill and Alviso.

 

[jc2ducati]

In SF, i notice this difference. Back before the crash in 2004, it seemed like there were a ton of POS crap rentals. No improvements. No fix-ups. I remember the "smell" of way to many POS properties in the mid-price ranges.

Today, in the same area, many of the properties are newly rennovated, clean, and "smell" nice. Yes, prices are higher, but at least the place is nicely done.

I can only think a lot of investors or "smart" people bought these POS places and have cherry picked the top of the market to sell them at. Perfect timing.

 

[m_asim]

Comps in my area are jacked, the vast majority of stuff selling is distressed (short-sale, foreclosed, etc), so prices in my area are ridiculously low. Makes refinancing a pain in the ass.

Can I has them foreclosed properties in your 'hood?

in the last 3 or 4 weeks, there's been a very noticeable increase in lower priced houses ($700k-$800k) on the peninsula.

Since when did a $700k-$800k house become "lower priced"?

 

[mike23w]

Since when did a $700k-$800k house become "lower priced"?

didn't say it was cheap; just lower priced.

peninsula prices were mostly $800k or more this year. it's the first time this year i've seen a significant number of houses in the seven hundreds or less.