- The median price single-family home in 2011: $965K - In 2014: $1,468K - a 52% increase*
- The average price single-family home in 2011: $1,002K - In 2014: $1,504K - a 50% increase*
My
projection is that the next three years will be similar, and here’s why:
Location – Mountain View has a great
geographical location on the peninsula. Live in Mountain View and you have easy
access to your job, whether it be Oracle, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Cisco,
Apple or almost any other company, from San Francisco to San Jose, because
highways 101, 237 and 85 all intersect in Mountain View. Plus, CalTrain and the
VTA light rail serve Mountain View, providing transportation to downtown San Jose,
the north San Jose region (Cisco campus), San Francisco, Palo Alto, Menlo Park
and the north peninsula communities.
Location – Mountain View is home to some of
Silicon Valley’s largest employers, including Google, Intuit, LinkedIn,
Microsoft, and Symantec. These companies are expanding and adding jobs. Time is
more valuable than money; so those with money are buying homes closer to work
to reduce commute time. Office buildings from five to eight stories tall soon
could be allowed north of Highway 101 adding as many as 3.4 million square feet
of new offices, with room for at least 15,000 employees, according a Mountain
View Voice article on February 26, 2014.
Location – After a long day at work, employees love to relax, eat and enjoy some nightlife. Mountain View’s pedestrian-friendly downtown is the destination point, offering cuisine from scores of countries, as well as bars and nightclubs, specialty shops, bookstores, coffeehouses, and sidewalk cafes. Castro Street is vibrant with people during the evening hours and housing within walking distance is in high demand.
Schools – Schools test scores are a primary driver of real estate values. The past test scores in the Mountain View-Whisman school district have kept real estate prices well below those of neighboring Los Altos and Palo Alto, but those scores are rapidly improving, bring up real estate values with them. We have seen the district’s Academic Performance Index (API) improve by almost 10% since 2007, with some individual schools now having an API similar to those found in Los Altos and Palo Alto schools.
* Based on
local MLS data. Information believed to be accurate but not guaranteed.
