Excuse Me, I Have a Question

Here are some numbers that make me wonder why there is new construction going on, as we speak. What the heck is going on? This is a list of the number of houses For Sale and [Sold in the last 3 months] for the East Bay Tri-Cities area:

Fremont: 680 [174]
Hayward: 817 [151]
Milpitas: 170 [77]
Newark: 189 [33]
Niles: 38 [11]
Sunol: 313 [60]
Union City: 254 [52]

Although, I have noticed that a lot of the new construction is mostly condos and townhouses, so I guess the thought is that people want to buy rather than rent and they have been sufficiently scared by the latest ‘creative’ mortgages. So why not offer those consumers something cheaper that they can still own. And make them eat their words when they used to complain about how they would never live in San Francisco because the houses are too close together!

And what about the foreclosures? What are those displaced people going to do? They can’t possibly talk anyone into lending them money again after losing their property can they? Or can they? Someone is always going to be clever when they are determined I suppose.

While we are talking about new construction, I noticed that there is a new major shopping center planned for southern-most Fremont near Milpitas (and the stinky dump, just don’t shop there in the summer, and have a windsock handy to determine the direction of the wind) just west of Interstate 880. It could be completed by the end of 2009.

The Bayside Marketplace will include several big retailers and a dozen smaller shops. It is one of several Fremont projects switching from industrial or office space to retail or housing. Actually there are a lot of empty office space complexes in Fremont, let’s hope they don’t all turn into shopping centers. But wait a minute — don’t retail shops invite the need for more office space? Oh my, this is really starting to get weird, like Deja Vu wierd. Pacific Commons and the Oakland A’s Ballpark Village promise more shopping opportunities off Auto Mall Parkway and 880. Another shopping center, The Globe (just west of Stevenson Blvd. and 880) is an international-themed shopping and entertainment center that continues to grow. And there is the nearby Newpark Mall.

So with all these shopping centers you know there will be even more housing built because shoppers need places to live, right? So in these times of negative housing there are still a lot of people banking on the economy picking up soon. Let’s hope they are right!