April 21, 2005

Street Talk by Carol Rosen

With real estate prices going through the roof, we wonder how long you’ve owned your home and how much the home’s value has appreciated. Do you know anyone who is currently looking to buy a house, and if so, what sort of stories do they tell you?
(Asked at Via Valiente)

“We will have lived in our house three years this May. It’s gone up in value by at least 30 percent. If I were looking right now, I’d probably still be looking, but I’d get a lot less than we did three years ago. We’ve put a lot into it, it was 30 years old when we bought it and it needed updating. We have friends looking for homes right now. But the houses on the market are too expensive for what you get. You can get better prices elsewhere (outside of Almaden) in San Jose. We have friends in a nice area whose house has appreciated. They are getting into an older house that requires 30 percent in upgrades and the taxes are so much higher. Then there are the schools. The schools are still suffering. We moved to this area because of the good schools. But all kids should have a chance for good schools and they don’t.”

Carolyn Odisho, 41
Almaden,
Homemaker


“I bought my home eight years ago and its value has increased probably about 70 percent. I’m glad I’m not looking for a house right now. I think the market is a little too high. It may decline, but I don’t think things will decline too much in this valley. Right now I don’t have any friends who are house hunting.”

Jackie Jones, 55
Almaden,
Sales rep


“I lived in Almaden more than 20 years. I moved to Gilroy five years ago to get out of the area’s traffic. Houses in Almaden have tripled in price, in Gilroy they’ve doubled. We bought our first house in Almaden in 1974 for $56,000 and sold it for $167,000. We bought our second Almaden home for $300,000 and sold it for about $1 million. I certainly wouldn’t want to be looking for a house [anywhere in this area] right now. Most of our friends sold their houses and moved out of the area. We moved to the Eagle Ridge area of Gilroy, all the houses are new and it’s a golf community.”

Bill Shirey, 61
Gilroy
Via Valiente Veterinary Clinic owner


“We’ve lived in our house for 39 years on Monday [April 18]. We bought it in 1966 for $23,000 and it’s worth about $700,000 now. We have no desire to move. We have grandkids in Almaden and we’re settled here. Besides, home prices now are too high. We want to stay here; we don’t want to pull out all our roots. We don’t know of anyone looking, although one of our longtime neighbors has his house for sale.”

Larry Flammer, 71
Almaden,
Retired


“We’ve lived in our house in Tracy for about eight years. We bought it brand new and its value has increased about 300 percent. This area is expensive, Tracy’s getting expensive too. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t have a house because it’s just too expensive to buy. Younger people are looking for homes, but many of them don’t have enough to buy anything in this area. One friend told me he qualified for a $250,000 loan, you can’t buy anything here for that amount, so everything is out of their price range.”

Jerry Lipich, 44
Tracy,
PW Super (Via Valiente) manager


“We’ve lived in our home for 35 years. Its value has increased a lot, but I don’t know the percentage. We haven’t really thought about moving; we’re happy here, in our home and in this area. We have a son and his family in Blossom Valley and our daughter lives in Boulder Creek. We have no desire to move.”

Nancy Mathews, 65
Almaden,
Retired


“We’ve lived in our home for 14 years and its value has increased, I don’t know, maybe $400,000 to $500,000 or more. I’m happy living here and it’s a lot of work to move. I don’t know anyone who is looking for a home right now.”

Linda Wootan, 42
Almaden,
Homemaker


“I’ve lived in my home in Almaden for six years and its value has doubled. I have no desire to look or to move, but I do feel badly for the people who are just now looking for homes and want to move into this area. I run the salon here and I’m also in real estate. Right now there’s no inventory of homes for sale. The homes that are on the market are getting offers of $100,000-plus over their already high asking prices. That will change with the summer though; another month and things will improve because most homes go on sale when school gets out.”

Jaleh Welby, 40ish
Almaden
Owner, Café Hair