[quote=Happs]Lots of office, retail, hotel and residential projects underway in the city of Santa Clara. Every little bit of new inventory helps if you’re looking to rent/buy.
Anecdotally, a couple weeks ago, I spent some time reading hotel/motel review websites of budget to mid priced properties from San Jose up to Palo Alto along El Camino Real and the 101. The great majority of properties where rooms are $125/night or less get poor reviews. Common themes are lack of cleanliness, unsavory clientele, indifferent customer service by owner/managers, dated rooms, etc.. It seems like one needs to spend $200 a night to get a room in a newer-built or clean property with a caring owner/manager. These 40+ year old properties can’t be paying that much yearly property tax to justify around $100/night. Based on the reviews of some of these properties, it doesn’t seem like computer engineers are staying there and nor are regular tourists or people in town visiting family/friends. Maybe people who can’t afford a regular apartment or who don’t have good credit are staying in these motels. So the boom in housing prices is probably translating to higher motel rates too.[/quote]Happs, from your link, it appears that Santa Clara may currently be undergoing “gentrification.” ALL its new projects underway (except “Midtown Village) ….
…. are large commercial/industrial projects and large multifamily projects.
According to the photo in the above link, “Midtown Village” appears to be an “infill” project (as are likely most of the rest of the projects shown in your link) of 2-story homes 6 feet apart with a backyard rear fence not more than 8 feet from the house with another home backing into that tiny backyard (built on substandard lots). In addition, the “styrofoam-looking” columns on the front porch suggest they are built with the cheapest finishes throughout. I would classify these homes as “PUDs.”
A well-built 1950’s-era fixer house on a 7K lot just blocks away for $200K more would be a much better investment than buying into this project, IMO. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when I last checked (in the late nineties), this area of SC (Stevens Creek Park) was situated in the (excellent) Cupertino School District attendance area. Not sure if both sides of the fwy do today.
A homebuyer can’t expect new construction in a single family home in the heart of SV unless it is a spec home (replacing an existing building on one city lot). If a buyer wants a SFR with at least a 5000 ft lot in SV (std-size SFR lot in urban CA), there is a 99% chance that they’re going to have to buy an older home.
It’s funny you should mention some of the hotels in SC Co as being substandard. We had to visit relatives back in the 90’s in that area who had too many guests in the house at that time and ended up staying in a motor lodge right next to the RR tracks in SJ for a few days. It was very dark and dingy in our room and the train, blowing its whistle, came thru several times per night. It was the worst motor lodge I’ve ever stayed in (and I’ve stayed in a LOT). As I recall, we paid about $68 night there around 17-18 years ago! It was during Thanksgiving and we always booked our lodging in advance but we didn’t realize how full the host’s house (although ~3000 sf) would be with their last-minute guests. So at the last minute, this place was the only place left …
