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Published on 07/21/1997 All articles from this issue

Mountain View housing market heats up

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By Carol Tiegs

Town Crier Staff Writer

Mountain View is a key player in the strongly resurging Silicon Valley housing market, partly by virtue of having land available for building.

Mountain View Community Development Department statistics show 275 residential units of all types currently under construction, with 883 more approved or in the review process. That includes 333 single family homes, 545 condominiums, row houses and townhouses, and 230 apartments.

"An unprecedented number of small-lot, single family in-fill projects are underway," according to economic development highlights released in July 1997 by the department.

Ben Murray, a planner in the department, said there are also a steady couple of requests each week for permits for remodels and additions on existing homes.

"It's a popular market for single family, detached homes," said Jeff Kwok, president of MV Development, Inc. and Transcontinental Real Estate, Inc. "Buyers are mostly couples and young families, professional people. Many are engineers."

Kwok has already sold four homes in his 10-home development on Mountain View Avenue at Villa Street, and is negotiating contracts on two more. The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath homes range from 1,521- to 1,805-square-feet and sell for $380,000 to $430,000. There is a $100 homeowner's association fee to cover landscaping and upkeep of the private road on the property.

Kwok said he is building 10 more similar homes at 26 Devonshire Ave. He is in the process of getting final approval for seven four-bedroom homes on Tyrella Avenue and hopes to start construction by the end of the year.

Kam Dahlquist and her fiancé, Greg McNelly, recently purchased one of Kwok's Mountain View Avenue homes.

"An advantage was being able to talk personally to the developer and put in a bid," she said. "Other developers have lotteries and waiting lists. It's really a tough market for housing right now."

Some developments have been designed in conjunction with the new light rail system, and some will create whole new neighborhoods within Mountain View.

The Crossings, a 353-unit development on California Street, was planned as a transit-oriented development to take advantage of the nearby CalTrain station. The new Whisman light rail station will be the centerpiece of the neighborhood being created on the GTE site at North Whisman Road and Central Expressway. When the line is completed in 2000, residents will be able to ride to San Jose or to downtown Mountain View, where they can transfer to CalTrain.

Homes in Kaufman and Broad's California Station development on the GTE site are selling as quickly as they are released. Only 32 of the 93 detached homes remain, and 56 of the 90 attached homes are already sold. The three- and four-bedroom detached homes feature cottage-style architecture and are priced from the high $300,000s.

Three other developers are also building on the GTE site. Eventually the new neighborhood will include 223 single family homes with 294 townhouses and condominiums.

Competition for land is stiff. Kwok said it makes sense for developers, for the long term, to buy apartments that can be torn. In the short term they have the rental income, he said.

Dahlquist was looking for a home close to Palo Alto and Stanford. "Mountain View is the closest place affordable-wise," she said.

That may change as competition drives up land prices. Kwok said land prices have inflated by around 25 percent since his company started buying land in 1995.