If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you’ll know that real estate news lately has been pretty one note. Basically, the predominant news story, day in and day out, is that Bay Area real estate is in the middle of a historic seller’s market. It’s been this way for a while now, and can give one the impression that not much is happening out there. On the contrary! One of the biggest real estate stories in years in currently unfolding in San Jose, related to developments in the tech industry.
The Great San Jose Tech Expansion
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/19/adobe-leases-downtown-san-jose-offices-amid-expansion-quest/
The two articles above are related, and concern a massive ongoing event in Silicon Valley: the looming expansion of some tech giants in San Jose. With Adobe’s recent lease of a mass of office space in the area, they’re making a serious statement about new growth, new jobs, and all the infrastructure demands that come with that. And Google’s “game-changing transit village” will be occupied by people numbering in the five figures. Make no mistake, these are massive developments.
The commercial real estate implications of this are staggering, and Google’s acquisition of commercial property in particular has been hugely impactful already. But the effects these enterprises will have on residential real estate should not be ignored. For one thing, the employees occupying these new facilities will need a place to live. And as any Bay Area resident will tell you, with traffic the way it is, the closer your home is to work, the better. As such, a whole new swell of demand for homes near these areas is going to raise prices. Anyone living in the area (or desiring to) would do well to make note of that. Downtown San Jose is on the move, and property values are likely to skyrocket as these projects near completion.
This development is really a microcosm of the Bay Area as a whole, as ever-growing tech companies gobble up more land. We certainly have some precedent for the predicted effects of this expansion. The scale and location of this one, however, may mark one of the biggest shifts yet in property values. Silicon Valley continues to grow and develop, and home prices keep setting record highs. It will be truly fascinating to see where everything ends up.