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Apartment Vacancy Rising in San Jose

After years of demand outstripping supply, the apartment vacancy rates in San Jose are starting to inch upwards as the COVID pandemic continues to put pressure on housing markets in the tech-rich havens around San Francisco. While San Jose has steadily been adding units for the last several years, much of the focus has been on housing to support staffing increases at the big tech firms that provided a steady supply of tenants for expensive new apartments. As many of the big tech firms have paused hiring or have embraced telecommuting to broaden work-from-home staff outside of Silicon Valley, the ...
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Newsom Signs Slate of Bills Aimed at Increasing Affordable Housing

Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 15 bills designed to address the state's availability of affordable housing. The measures include incentives to build near public transit and increasing density bonuses for developers. California has long struggled to deal with homelessness and housing affordability, as increasing rent and home values squeeze out working families and make housing difficult to attain. The pandemic has increased urgency around these issues, even as Governor Newsom expanded eviction moratoriums through the end of January. A housing crisis is expected throughout the US when the moratoriums are eventually lifted and renters are faced with balloon ...
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Further Tightening in Office Market Defies National Trends

Throughout this somewhat uncommon 2020, Silicon Valley has continued to demonstrate strength and resiliency in the commercial office space market. Rising occupancy levels continued in the 2nd quarter, and as demand continued to outstrip the growth in supply, according to CoStar. Seattle is the only major metro area in the US that has lower availability. If we assume that any recessions resulting from COVID pandemic remains short, the fundamentals for the Bay area appear headed for only a slight softening, says CoStar analyst Jesse Gundersheim. The job loss picture across the nation as a whole is catastrophic, but the Silicon ...
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Low Vacancy Trend Continues in San Jose

Beginning in 2012, occupancy growth has been on a continued trend to outstrip supply. In 2019, that growth exceeded supply by a whopping 1 million square feet. In a report published by CoStar, occupancy in San Jose grew by 2.4 million square feet, yet supply only grew by 1.4 millions square feet. This squeezed vacancy rates to a low 8.4%, which puts the Bay Area near the lowest vacancy rates in the United States. Vacancy has been below the national average since the trend began in 2012. In addition to Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Seattle join the club with ...
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Nostalgic Cambrian Park Redevelopment Plans Spark Community Concerns

Responding to public comment and city officials' concerns, plans for the redevelopment of historic Cambrian Park Plaza shopping center have been revised to better reflect the needs of the community, including better amenities for pedestrians and bike traffic. Famous for its carousel display, the 17-acre site is being redeveloped by Weingarten Realty. Months of discussions and community feedback have led to a revision of the development plans, which are now drastically different from the original plans, according to Councilmember Pam Foley. In an interview with Foley, San Jose Spotlight reported that the changes will pay homage to the Plaza's history ...
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Moderately-Priced Apartment Community Grabs $400k/Unit Sale Price

It's not very common to find a multi-family community in the Silicon Valley area with rent below the regional average. One such property recently changed hands, sold by the investing behemoth Blackstone to the Teacher's Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). While the average rent nationally is around $1,355/mo, the tenants of the Silicon Valley area have been enduring some of the highest rents in the nation - currently averaging around $2,770/mo, according to CoStar. By contrast, Terra House, a 348-unit property, located at 4501 Snell Ave in South San Jose, has an average rent of ...
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Old Tinder Offices Get New Tenant

A new tenant has leased the Palo Alto office space previously occupied by Tinder. Globality, a technology firm specializing in artificial intelligence, will move into the space vacated by the dating app company. The entire three-story building, encompassing approximately 30,000 square feet, was leased by Globality. The property is located at 2555 Park Blvd. Tinder recently expanded to new offices in San Francisco. Globality was represented by Bo McNally and Rollins Stallworth of T3 Advisors. Landlord John Fog was represented by Ben Stern and Kevin Cunningham of Newmark Knight Frank. Keystone Commercial Brokerage serves the needs of commercial real estate ...
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SF Voters Tackle Housing Crisis

The recent election provided SF voters with an opportunity to vote on two key measures designed to bring much-needed relief to the growing housing crisis in the Bay Area. Rents in the Bay Area have been under pressure caused by rapid growth in the technology industry, creating too much demand for limited supply. Coupled with the higher incomes offered by the technology employees, the high demand for housing often pushes out those with more marginal or lower incomes. One of the initiatives to pass was a $600 million bond package, dubbed Proposition A. It passed with a 69% vote. The ...
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New Rent Caps Increase Number of Controlled Units

California recently passed AB 1482, which seeks to cap rent increases at 5% plus the local rate of inflation on apartments 15 years old or older. This increases the number of units subject to the caps, to 65% of the total inventor (or 1.65 million units). These units were not previously covered under rent control rules. The new law will be implemented at the start of 2020, and will have the greatest impact on the largest markets. The new ordinance will impact nearly 430,000 apartments in the Los Angeles county alone. San Diego and Orange County are also expected to ...
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Google Takes First Steps to Formalize San Jose Plans

While Google's plans in San Jose haven't exactly been secret, a big milestone was recently passed when Google submitted formal applications for it's mixed use community in San Jose. These plans are expected to be transformative in downtown San Jose. The location will house Google's 2nd headquarters site. Based in Mountain View, CA, Google plans around the historic Diridon train station, which forms the anchor for the project, is now dubbed Downtown West, and spans 60 acres. The plans submitted by Google include 3,000-5,000 residential unites, 6.5 million sq ft of office space, and 418,000 sq ft of light industrial ...
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