Bay Area buyers frustrated by tight supply of homes for sale

San Jose Mercury ^ | 05/31/2014 | Pete Carey

[artichokegrower]

In one of the most agonizing disconnects of the Bay Area's surging economy, far more people want to buy a home than want to sell one, making this the tightest housing market in the nation.

Would-be homebuyers are crowding into scarce open houses and battling for the few available, leading to rising prices, rapid sales -- many homes sell within a week -- and frustrated house hunters.

"This is the most sustained period of low inventory I've seen in 20 to 24 years," said Chris Trapani, head of the Sereno Group in Silicon Valley.

[vette6387]

“You must be blind not to see the communists”

I guess you don’t understand California. The Commies are all in the cities, all I saw on my way to Salinas were a few farmworkers (some of whom might have been illegal). I did get to see the only remaining flying B-29 though.

[dennisw]

I will confirm that the person you are replying to is in hi-tech fantasy land. OK he’ll do great and so will gov’t workers, gov’t contractors, certain credentialed professions (like dentist) and the big boy capitalists and bankers. But it is not going to get better for rest of America, It will get worse. Blame free trade, automation, open borders, computerization.

All that hokum about the buggy whip makers who got thrown put of jobs by the automobile. But who then got jobs in the burgeoning automobile industry. This will not be repeating this time around.

Energy is a growth sector. We have hope and good honest work there but it cannot rescue this out of wack economy

[jetson]

How many properties are owned by landlords who lease the properties rather than permitting sale?

And they rent to Mexicans and whites on welfare or social security ( easy money).

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Well the houses are dinky and run down

I know you must not know what I am talking about because when people come from the Bay Area to where I live, they go wow, this would be a multimillion dollar house where I live, wow, everything is so big here, wow, everything is painfully clean and fixed up here

So, hit flyover country sometime, then you will know what I am talking about

Been there - family in Austin, Iowa City, Boulder, and I regularly travel on business within the US. When there's less demand, less buys more in both houses and land to build new houses - basic supply and demand. But there are plenty of big, spacious houses on big, spacious lots in the Bay Area - and they cost a lot of money. Even the smaller houses are no less nice than anything I've seen outside of the Bay Area. I think it might just be the people you're running into from the Bay Area.

[yldstrk]

ooooooooooooooookay

whatever you say kemosabe

[AnotherUnixGeek]

ooooooooooooooookay

whatever you say kemosabe

As I mentioned, I've been to many other parts of this country - often. Based on what you've said, you've never even been to the Bay Area and therefore have no personal info about this subject at all. Why not fly out and spend a few days looking around - hotels and rental cars are no worse than anywhere else. Drive around and make your own observations - not just San Francisco, which is nothing like most of the Bay Area, but the East Bay, the Peninsula and the South Bay/Silicon Valley.

Always better to speak based on personal experience, as I have, rather than make a reply like yours based on what you heard someone once say.

[yldstrk]

uh no I have been to the Bay Area numerous times and all over up to Medocino, Napa, Mount Shasta. You are misled if you say the place isn’t run down, full of communists, attracts the homeless because of the weather and so on and so forth.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

uh no I have been to the Bay Area numerous times and all over up to Medocino, Napa, Mount Shasta.

OK, if you say so kemosabe - you said previously that your statement was based on what folks from the Bay Area said, so you'll understand why I assumed you had never been here yourself. BTW, Mendocino over 150 miles from San Francisco, about 200 miles from San Jose. Mount Shasta is about 240 miles from San Francisco, almost 300 miles from San Jose. You're sure this was the Bay Area you visited?

run down, full of communists, attracts the homeless because of the weather

A few parts are run down, as are parts of every other area in the nation. Many parts are very nice. It's not at all full of communists, though the sad truth is that the Bay Area is dominated by reflexive, unthinking liberals. I'm not clear on why you think it attracts the homeless since you previously said it was cold, but whatever.

Like I said, I'd suggest you come to the Bay Area - not areas hundreds of miles from here, but the Bay Area itself, and look around for yourself.

[truth_seeker]

“Unfortunately, that affects the comps for existing homes and we get to pay more in property taxes.”

Maybe an initiative could be passed in Texas like California did in the late 1970s to limit property taxes based on what the owner paid for his property.

It has withstood continual court challenges. It is Proposition 13.

It limits taxes to 1% of the assessed value, where assessed value is the purchase price. Such value can be increased only 2% per year.

[Clemenza]

Manhattan and Brooklyn real estate is now more expensive than it has ever been, even adjusted for inflation. Wall Street, wealthy foreigners, and to a lesser extent tech. The numbers on a two bedroom in formerly desolate/prole places like the Lower East Side or Greenpoint don’t lie.

[yldstrk]

look I have been to the Bay Area, stayed weeks at a time in the Bay Area, multiple times over the past 25+ years, married to someone who grew up in the Bay Area and still has friends and family there. I get that you think it is heaven on earth and we should all be so lucky.

Well, my opinion of the place is different.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I have been to the Bay Area, stayed weeks at a time in the Bay Area, multiple times over the past 25+ years, married to someone who grew up in the Bay Area and still has friends and family there.

Whatever you say. But why do you need folks from the Bay Area telling you about it if you're a semi-regular here?

I get that you think it is heaven on earth and we should all be so lucky.

Nope, that's as off base as the other things you've been saying - it's overpriced, overtaxed and over-regulated. But it's not cold or dinky or dirty, or any of the other stuff you mentioned.

[kearnyirish2]

These numbers only hold up as long as there is a population that can afford property taxes of $1,000 per month or more; once that evaporates then the properties become difficult to sell. Happened in northeastern NJ when NYC lost a lof of jobs over the last seven years; once those high-paying jobs were gone (and they aren’t coming back), property values fell and many homeowners ended up “underwater” very quickly. When they tried to sell the homes, they couldn;t find buyers that were too eager to pay what amounts to basically a monthly rent in property taxes on top of the monthly mortgage.

[yldstrk]

well Mark Twain thought it was cold and so do I.

I think when a cottage sells for 500,000 it’s dinky. And the standards of maintenance are very casual.

But I am glad you like it. Since you are stuck there.

[skeeter]

Since just doing whatever it wants the law be damned its the latest fad among statists I wonder how much longer Prop 13 will last before they simply declare it dead. They’ve hated that thing for decades now.

[Pelham]

“Immigration is the largest factor. Leading realtor in heart of SillyCon Valley reports three-quarters of purchases are from communist China, etc. Many for all cash. Very few local folks can afford to buy anymore.”

That’s happening in southern California as well. My realtor friends are selling homes for a million dollars cash to foreign nationals, most seem to be from China.

Americans in California are getting priced out of better neighborhoods and are getting driven out of average ones by the onslaught of illegal aliens.

[Pelham]

well said

[AnotherUnixGeek]

well Mark Twain thought it was cold and so do I.

Mark Twain thought San Francisco was cold, and it can be. But San Francisco is a small part of the Bay Area, and it's weather is unlike that of any other part of it. The Bay Area is not cold - it's typically warmer here than most parts of the US.

But I am glad you like it. Since you are stuck there.

Thank you for your good wishes, but by assuming I like it, you're again off base - there are many things that need fixing, but you don't know what they are, obviously. And no one is stuck in the Bay Area - those of us who can afford to live here can afford to live pretty much anywhere else - again, I'd encourage you to learn something about the subject before making statements about it.

[yldstrk]

You mean like the homeless people that come there because the weather is good?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

You mean like the homeless people that come there because the weather is good?

They come here because the benefits are too good - and that's because the Bay Area is full of taxpayers making enough money to fund those benefits. Again, you don't seem to know much about this area.