This afternoon, Diane and I walked over to a new home development near here, Heritage Grove. The builder had a long struggle with the town to get the development approved (it’s on land which used to be an orchard), and once they finally succeeded, they were unable to build as many homes as they’d wanted. So they decided to build expensive homes, just in time for real estate prices here in Los Gatos to skyrocket. When they first opened up the development, they were quoting prices “from the 900,000’s”, but that’s ancient history (at least six months old). They released five homes yesterday, all of which sold immediately, at prices from 1.8 to 2.4 million dollars. These houses are ok — 2900 to 3700 square feet, but they’re not on enormous lots (and there’s no privacy — the back yards are easily viewed from the neighboring home’s second floor), and our recently remodelled kitchen has better cabinetry than these houses do. The smallest house is nearly 50% larger than our house, but somehow the bedrooms felt cramped. Fortunately, we were only looking for decorating ideas rather than actually being in the market, but it was still frightening to see these prices for houses in our extended neighborhood.
Diane says my eye hasn’t changed enough to warrant posting a new picture. I guess that’s good…. But I have posted Montréal pictures and updated the narrative for June 6th. I think that finishes that particular trip.
Happy Birthday, Allison!