A love letter to our town

A love letter to our town – Part II

Six or seven years ago, I happened to know of many great cities with affordable real estate in lovely neighborhoods. Not the case for Silicon Valley. In 2003, I found (to my great shock) that in the neighborhoods of our choice, we were confined to the following two options in our price range:

a) next door or directly across from cemeteries; or

b) across the street from railroad tracks.

I should not forget to mention however, that one can always find "Deals" or "Miracles", even in situations like these. Which we did. We found a house at the last farthest possible border of the area we had in mind, the roof and floor infested with termite and the heating system in violation of city codes, next door to another lovely shack with what used to be white bed sheets hung as curtains. We hungrily and aggressively put a bid of full asking price on such a palace. But a thousand thanks to the generous soul that out bid us, we were left homeless in that crazy housing market of Silicon Valley circa 2003.

Defeated, we had to relax. Let me just tell you if you don’t happen to live in the area, that the real estate prices are set based on the assumption that every single person is a dotcom millionaire. To give you an idea, even in neighborhoods like East Palo Alto, affected by high levels of crime and poverty, the mean housing prices in 2008 were $616,249 US dollars!

Downtown Vancouver, 1,000 sqft condo with view of ocean, gym, walking

distance to theatres, shopping district, beach, museums, heaven, etc

Price Tag in 2003: $200,000 USD

Downtown Palo Alto, 1328 sqft, 60 year old building in dire need of demolition and rebuilding

walking distance to a cute town and other lovely homes

Price Tag 2003: $ 900,000 USD

But, when we weren't looking the real estate gods smiled upon us....

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