White Oak home sellers cashing in, moving out
CAMPBELL >> The White Oak neighborhood has joined the Silicon Valley real estate boom, but sellers here are taking their gains to move entirely out of the state.
To wit, the soon-to-be former owners of a single-family home at 1925 White Oaks Road are buying a $500,000 home in Indiana.
“They can pay off the mortgage in Indiana with the proceeds from this one,” Realtor Winnie Le said.
Redfin residential real estate recently named White Oak the third hottest neighborhood in the Bay Area. San Jose’s Cambrian area is No. 2 and the Bucknall neighborhood, also in San Jose, was ranked No. 1. According to Redfin, the median price of a Cambrian home is $1,244,000. Redfin also reported that 100 percent of the homes sold in Cambrian in December 2017 sold above list price.
The neighborhood’s namesake street, White Oaks Road, is off Bascom Avenue, sandwiched between Camden Avenue in San Jose and Beethoven Lane in Los Gatos.
Recently, a home at 173 Shelley Ave., which is off White Oaks Road, listed for $875,000 and sold in late December for $980,000. In this case, the owner had already moved back to Nebraska, where she grew up.
“A lot of my clients are leaving the area or downsizing,” Realtor Gina Ray said.
Downsizing is what happened down the street at 207-A Shelley. It was listed for $1 million and sold recently for $50,000 more.
“It was sold by an older couple who couldn’t do the stairs anymore,” Ray said. “I think people are coming over to townhomes because single-family homes are so much more expensive.”
Realtor Igor Reznikov thinks his recent closing of a townhome at 225 Shelley broke a record at $1.3 million. The three bedroom, two-and-a-half bath townhouse is just over 2,000 square feet and sold for
$200,000 above asking.
“The extra price increases are because inventory is so low,” Reznikov said. “There are very few people who are casually selling their homes. One reason is because people who bought their homes some time ago and selling today have significant capital gains.”
Another reason, Reznikov
said, is that homeowners are asking, “What am I going to buy when I sell?”
Which brings us back to the 1925 White Oaks Road sale. The four bedroom, two bath home went on the market in January and sold in three weeks above its $1.25 million asking price, Le said.
Le agrees with fellow realtors Ray and Reznikov
that new buyers in the Silicon Valley are attracted to White Oak because it’s a starter neighborhood. As Reznikov observed, “A $1.3 million starter is now relative.”
How long they wait to capitalize on their investment remains to be seen.