The Friday Journal section of the Wall Street Journal (March 16) has an article titled "The Hot Spot for the Rising Tech Generation" that is highlighting Noe Valley and the Mission as the scenes of intense bidding wars for houses and lofts. Median home prices in the Mission grew 44% in December (year over year).
The hottest properties are near corporate shuttle bus stops–where employees for companies like Google, Facebook, Genentech, LinkedIn and Apple line up daily for the ride to Silicon Valley. Real-estate agent Amanda Jones calls it the "Shuttle Effect" and said proximity can command as much as a 20% premium. Some real-estate agents said they're dying for a map of where the buses pick-up. "When a listing gets deluged with people–that tells me it's close to a stop." said Ms. Jones.
Some companies share a few of the same stops, occasionally leading to employees getting on the wrong bus. Discussions can get animated about adding or moving a stop….
I have seen the return side of this service in action here in B'game as employees spill out of 330 Primrose in the evening and board the shuttles. We are on at least two routes that load in front of and on the side of the building
We've talked about B'game as a long-time tech town and more recently as the site of a few start-ups; some of whom are willing to put up with sketchy power feeds from PG&E that wreak havoc on data centers that can't afford full back-up. Having this kind of shuttle service is great exposure to B'game for the next generation of home buyers. As the Journal article notes "they also want something (in the city) that they will be able to sell for more money in five years, when they might have to move to the suburbs for better schools." That trend is everlasting.
Leave a Reply