Contra Costa Real Estate : Every year, the National Association of Realtors spends thousands of dollars on studies to figure out the answer to this question, “What do home buyers want?”
I could have told them over a fresh bear-claw and a cup of coffee. And I’ll tell you for free!
Buyers buy to provide for their family’s happiness and security, access to local or community amenities, and proximity to employment.
When California Highways 680 and 580 widened and crossed each other in the late 80’s, it turned what was once weedy rolling hills into a huge Real Estate development project. Homes were built by the thousands, turning sleepy little Pleasanton and the attending communities of San Ramon, Dublin, and Livermore into boom towns. In only a few years time, this area grew into massive housing projects and large shopping centers, built to tend to the needs of the new population.
Why did they want to live there all of a sudden?
Because these new, wider freeways shortened the commute to San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland. There is an old adage in Real Estate that goes “Drive ‘til you qualify!” This area became, almost overnight, a commuter suburb of those employment centers. Before this, it was simply too far to drive.
Why people are buying Contra Costa real estate
Why do people sell their souls to live in a 60 year-old tar-and-gravel-roofed house in Lafayette when they can have a larger, newer home for a third of the price elsewhere?
Because Lafayette has some of the best schools in the nation and very low crime.
Why has Pleasant Hill suddenly awakened from being a sleepy little wide spot in the road to a viable alternative to neighboring Concord and Walnut Creek?
The addition of a downtown shopping area, reclaimed from an area of auto repair, contractor, and cabinet shops has added the shopping amenities that the city needed to be able to take itself seriously. It provides a community identity and enhanced quality of life for the local residents. Suddenly, it is “cool” to live in Pleasant Hill!
You can add-on and remodel until you are blue on the thumb, but you will NEVER be able to add those three intangibles.
Buyers describe the home they just purchased as a X bedroom, Y bathroom, Z square foot home…
But what they really wanted was as much of those three things in the third paragraph as they can afford. That explains why Contra Costa real estate is in big demand.
Click here to read about how “Curb Appeal” affects your decision of which home to buy.
Click here to find your “Dream Home”!
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