Posted on 03/09/2014 8:35:01 PM PDT by Lorianne
Not long ago the pink house at 1829 Church Street, in the Glen Park neighborhood here, hit the market for $895,000.
It sold for $1.425 million — $530,000 over the asking price — in less than two weeks.
The story of this fixer-upper, with three bedrooms, two baths, linoleum floors and an Eisenhower-era kitchen, is in some ways the story of the moment in the city, where longtime residents complain that Silicon Valley money is basically ruining the place for everyone else.
More wealth is concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area than just about any other place in the nation. Google alone, the story goes, minted 1,000 millionaires when it went public. Ditto Facebook. And Twitter? Some estimate 1,600. Tech worker bees are doing just fine, too, with average base salaries now north of $100,000.
To understand how all this money is transforming San Francisco, for better and worse, look no further than this city’s hyperventilating real estate market. As technology companies have moved in — more than 5,000 start-ups now make their home locally — the influx of well-paid workers has pushed rents and home prices through the roof. Worsening matters, San Francisco has also become a bedroom community for many of the young people who work in Silicon Valley. Each day, Apple, Facebook, Google and others shuttle tens of thousands of their employees to work using private buses that have become a controversial symbol of rising tech wealth.
At a recent open house for 1829 Church Street, the broker explained the property’s dilapidated appeal.
“It’s a block away from all the tech shuttles,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bits.blogs.nytimes.com ...
You should be complaining. Its another market jacked up by foreigners in SELLOUT USA. Ignore the gun dope above.
We are not the world, your point is invalid. Allowing foreigners to breeze in here to buy and sell as they please is what a poor corrupt third world nation does
“Realtors advise that mostly Chinese bidders can often compete against each other so that our commie friends are giving themselves a high priced. Costly introduction to the operation of a free market as they buy up most of the housing. .”
Let them buy. They will find out that what goes up, will come down. The Chinese don’t like the Japanese, but they should take a look at how California real estate screwed the Japanese wealthy a decade or two ago. It’s a good way to get our money back from the little bastards.
California is ridiculous. Texas is excellent.
these people will be below the surface shortly.
ie underwater.
If you live in the Bay Area and your husband is out of work you can sell your house and move to the Sierra foothills and buy a nicer place for 1/3 rd the $. Then put $ in the bank or buy 2 places and rent one
We live at 3000 ft elevation El Dorado County Great place to live 2 of our kids still live in Bay Area and now have someplace sane to escape on weekends.
Amador County also outstanding
Good luck
Thanks for the info. The Bay Area is just crazy. I have 2 daughters who are married and they both live in the Bay Area. It would be wonderful to not be so far away from them which just kills me to think about but if something doesn’t turn around soon we will have to move.
Interesting. Here around DC there were numerous Arab buyers, not sure how many there are now, but there is enough Muslim infrastructure to support them along with their sleeper terrorists. Developers here favor the extreme high end since there seems to be no upper limit on what those jokers will spend.
Welcome to corrupt third-world America; brought to you by the Democrat and Republican parties.
“Now the prices are higher and even though we could sell our house we could not afford to buy anything better so whats the point.”
In cases like that it is the supply and demand of the buildable space dictating prices (as in San Diego, Portland). A friend retired here in NJ, and was considering moving to San Diego. Even though he owned the NJ house free & clear (in a decent area where prices are rising), he said if he moved to San Diego he could buy a place about an hour outside of the city. As I understand it, in Portland so much of the surrounding area has been “protected” from building that it has driven up prices significantly.
More fascism than capitalism. These people are the politically connected elites in China.
Sustaining a mortgage relies on a growing and stable job market. I can’t imagine where such a thing exists right now or at least for another 3 years and the repeal of disastrous obamacare.
Well placed people and corporations have profited mightily from American free trade policies that hollow out industry and export jobs to China, Mexico etc. They hire libertarian think tanks like Cato to propagandize how great both are plus they bribe (via campaign donations) and influence the right politicians. Same for profiting from our open borders via cheap labor.
You closed the borders and the minimum type wages will start creeping up without any of Obamas stupid minimum wage laws
Nope, sorry. Not true. Ordinary folks.
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