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is this evidence of a housing shortage?


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2010 Aug 11, 2:55am   4,729 views  19 comments

by toothfairy   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

I did a search for rental houses in my local area and this is what I came up with.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/sby?query=house&srchType=T&bedrooms=&nh=41

There are a total of 11 houses for rent for a population of 111,997

This cant be right...can it?

#housing

Comments 1 - 19 of 19        Search these comments

1   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 3:06am  

Get rid of "house" in your search.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/sby?query=&srchType=T&bedrooms=&nh=41

8 pages.

And no, housing shortage in Santa Clara? It's one of the most plentiful places for cheaper rentals.

2   toothfairy   2010 Aug 11, 3:13am  

I'm not talking about apartments though. There's almost never a shortage of apartments to rent.

in rent vs buy tradeoff the alternative to buying is supposed to be renting similar property.

3   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 3:33am  

It's still flawed. Not everyone puts the word "house" in their listing. Nor does everyone create a craigslist ad. SFHs still have to compete with townhouses.

Either way, it's still clearly much cheaper to rent than buy the vast majority of houses in Santa Clara, though the purchase prices have been steadily dropping.

Also, their search index is broken.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/sby?query=house&srchType=T&bedrooms=&nh=41

Looks for "house" but this listing clearly has "house" in it

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/1893019439.html

Yet it doesn't show up in the search.

So, it's flawed on multiple points.

Expect further declines in Santa Clara.

4   toothfairy   2010 Aug 11, 3:40am  

the index isn't broken I did a search for "house" in the title.

I agree it's cheaper to rent than buy in Santa Clara....if you're happy with the 11 rental houses to choose from. Half of them are dumps the other half are probably headed to foreclosure.

In any case if you're renting keep your fingers crossed that your landlord doesn't decide to sell.

5   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 3:48am  

Sigh. It's still flawed, there are far more than 11 "houses" to rent in Santa Clara. Hard to understand? Yeah, about as hard as it is to move.

My landlord selling or foreclosing (far more likely) are the least of my worries. It's really not a big deal.

Please stop using that argument, it's dumb.

6   toothfairy   2010 Aug 11, 3:56am  

well I havent rented in a long time. But i imagine it would be a worry If my family faced the prospect of being one month away from having to choose from +-11 houses available.

I would probably bite the bullet and buy an overpriced house. So I can understand why people are doing just that.

7   warblah   2010 Aug 11, 3:59am  

you are not even asking a question, you basically already have your own answer and just asking support from certain people on this board...

8   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 4:02am  

Buying an OP house is up to them. Sadly, that's why we have the problem we have today. More foreclosures and short sales on their way.

As far as selling, it should be pretty obvious the house you're renting is for sale, giving you much longer than a month.

As far as foreclosure, the bank is required to adhere to the original lease or give 90 days notice, whichever is more. If the home is purchased, and not being used as a primary residence, the same rules apply.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-30064.html

It's nowhere near as bad as people make it.

9   toothfairy   2010 Aug 11, 4:21am  

warblah says

you are not even asking a question, you basically already have your own answer and just asking support from certain people on this board…

I'm dont normally search for rentals so my question is this normal for Silicon Valley or is the rental market actually getting tighter?
I think it's a good thing to ask.

10   toothfairy   2010 Aug 11, 4:27am  

not to alarm you Crazyman but I did a check on Campbell and their rental market is REALLY tight.

11   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 4:38am  

toothfairy says

not to alarm you Crazyman but I did a check on Campbell and their rental market is REALLY tight.

Rents are down and I can get them all day.

I still rent a corner lot 3 bedroom house for $1800.

My buddy just rented a condo that sold in 2005 for 479, for $1500. The condos are now selling for 300K.

Still going down.

12   fil   2010 Aug 11, 4:47am  

When looking for a rental I check with the city or county assessor records to see when the property last changed hands. If the landlord bought long before the bubble, they probably won't need to sell. You can usually find the value of the property at the time of the last sale as well.

13   ahasuerus99   2010 Aug 11, 5:35am  

It might not be possible in desirable areas like the bay area for rents to head down while there's so much shadow inventory, but here in Arizona it isn't a problem at all because of massive overbuilding. Where I live, and even in worse in Phoenix, there are so many more houses and apartments than people that even with shadow inventory there's more supply than demand. I sometimes forget when I'm reading this board how different a world it is just one state over. There are lots of places in Arizona where they could build no new homes for a decade or longer and still not have a housing shortage.

14   thomas.wong1986   2010 Aug 11, 5:48am  

Crazyman is right. There is no shortage, because there frankly is no demand. A real shortage would look something like 1998-99. as many rushed into the valley. After 2000, demand and prices dropped like a rock. There is rather a plenty of supply when you look at who comes here... not families but single folks.

15   CrazyMan   2010 Aug 11, 6:10am  

permanent_marker says

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/sby?query=single+family&srchType=A&bedrooms=&nh=41
searched for ’single family’ around ~20 listings.

Might as well search for djkasdklasjdkljwklqdjqwkljdklqwj.

It's just as meaningless.

17   rob918   2010 Aug 11, 9:46am  

toothfairy says

as bad as our situation is at least it’s not this bad.
http://www.thegrio.com/news/hell-breaks-loose-in-line-for-georgia-public-housing.php

That's been on quite a few programs today......CNBC, FBN, etc., and they were quoting city officials said there is zero houses available as of today and this application is to only get on a list and then the official said that most will never get a place. There were even police in riot gear, but thankfully, for the most part most folks were well behaved according to those same reports. I would say that the city should have come up with a better plan than standing on cars throwing out applications to the masses.

18   simchaland   2010 Aug 11, 10:19am  

rob918 says

toothfairy says


as bad as our situation is at least it’s not this bad.
http://www.thegrio.com/news/hell-breaks-loose-in-line-for-georgia-public-housing.php

That’s been on quite a few programs today……CNBC, FBN, etc., and they were quoting city officials said there is zero houses available as of today and this application is to only get on a list and then the official said that most will never get a place. There were even police in riot gear, but thankfully, everyone was well behaved. I would say that the city should have come up with a better plan than standing on cars throwing out applications to the masses.

Yes, I've heard that there are roaming gangs of people who are currently homeless due to foreclosure and the scarce availability of rental houses all around Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Mountainview, Menlo Park, Marin County, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. You need to watch yourself because if you walk around outside and have any papers with you they think they are rental applications for houses. If you don't give them your papers immediately, they beat you until you give up your papers. Then they write all over them and throw them back on top of you as you lay writhing in pain from your beating. Then they run away to the next person they see who has papers. There is a threat by local mayors to send in the National Guard to control these wild packs of potential house renters. They are voracious and must be stopped!

19   warblah   2010 Aug 11, 11:03am  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wZdkPvzTLI

I don't agree with everything he said, but he does make interesting videos.

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