Gentrification in Hayward (San Jose, Oakland, Fremont: homes, buyers, place to live)

[dajohnson99]

I've been thinking about picking up an investment property in the Bay Area and I've always thought that Hayward might be a good area to look at. I know that it used to once be a great place to live - my dad lived there for most of his childhood until he moved to Fremont and he always loved it.

My question- Is it still a good place to live or would it be a good place to live it gentrified? Maybe I'm just delusional and it will never gentrify, then again people used to think that about Oakland.. look where we are now.

Thanks!

[BurnInTheMil]

I think Richmond would gentrify before Hayward. Berkeley is already putting in the works for a BART extension to Richmond. I've never looked into property in Richmond (honestly, why would I) but that could be worth a look?

[netaxcat]

I live in Hayward Hills, Stonebrae Country Club — It is a hidden beauty in the Bay Area, and we love it up here.

In a nutshell; yes, I believe for a central Bay Area location like Hayward, it is slowly and surely being gentrified.

I work with a few nationwide developers/builders in Hayward, it allows me to have a glimpse of the near future…

They are starting numerous projects all over Hayward, adding (by my last count) almost a thousand new Single Family Homes (priced from low $1.2M to high $1.6M.) In a few years when they finished, it will bring in new geographic of homeowners/residents to the city.

Another builder told me, 100% of their buyers in Hayward were from San Mateo Peninsula area (mostly tech and pharmaceutical people.)

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Greg10556

I think Richmond would gentrify before Hayward. Berkeley is already putting in the works for a BART extension to Richmond. I've never looked into property in Richmond (honestly, why would I) but that could be worth a look?

Huh? There is already BART service between Berkeley and Richmond.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by netaxcat

I live in Hayward Hills, Stonebrae Country Club — It is a hidden beauty in the Bay Area, and we love it up here.

In a nutshell; yes, I believe for a central Bay Area location like Hayward, it is slowly and surely being gentrified.

I work with a few nationwide developers/builders in Hayward, it allows me to have a glimpse of the near future…

They are starting numerous projects all over Hayward, adding (by my last count) almost a thousand new Single Family Homes (priced from low $1.2M to high $1.6M.) In a few yeas when they finished, it will bring in new geographic of homeowners/residents to the city.

Another builder told me, 100% of their buyers in Hayward were from San Mateo Peninsula area (mostly tech and pharmaceutical people.)

I'm surprised it hasn't really gentrified much already because it's proximity to the Peninsula but I guess maybe it's harder for post-war suburbs to do so.

Once the Silicon Valley BART extension opens up I think that will put more pressure on Hayward and intensify demand. If BART manages to reach downtown San Jose and more tech companies start locating there (Google for example), Hayward has even more potential.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by sav858

Huh? There is already BART service between Berkeley and Richmond.

My bad on the "phrasement". Yes there is already service. Not sure how I got off track. I meant to say that the Richmond BART is currently undergoing a makeover (major renovation) in hopes/preparedness for gentrification there, partly because of Berkeley spillover/youngins

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Greg10556

My bad on the "phrasement". Yes there is already service. Not sure how I got off track. I meant to say that the Richmond BART is currently undergoing a makeover (major renovation) in hopes/preparedness for gentrification there, partly because of Berkeley spillover/youngins

I can't find any information on this project, I tried looking it up when you first mentioned it a few weeks back. I knew BART was doing a modernization project at the El Cerrito Del Norte station, the next stop down, and other stations but never heard anything about Richmond.

https://www.bart.gov/about/planning/station

[shooting4life]

It would be a good area to invest. One of the few relatively affordable places that is centrally located in the entire Bay Area.

If they ever converted the rail line between rwc and Union city bart it would make the area much more accessible to those working on the mid peninsula.


The biggest issues with the Hayward/San Leandro/slz/ north Fremont area is the lack of public transportation to the mid peninsula and is why the 880/92/101 commute is one of the worst in the Bay Area. Connecting Bart to Caltrain across the already built bridge with stops at Facebook would greatly alleviate this problem.

http://www.bayrailalliance.org/dumbarton_rail

[netaxcat]

Interestingly, Hayward has many vacant lands/lots sitting un-utilized (or under-utilized), while most of the Bay Area cities are over-built with no space to spare.

Remember back in the early 90’s, Sun Microsystems had offices on both ends of the San Mateo bridge. We used to attend tech conferences at the Sun Microsystems building, in Hayward.

Somehow after that, while most major Bay Area cities thrived on the dot-com, tech, pharmaceutical booms; the Hayward city council turned their heads to the somewhat snoozy manufacturing, warehouse, and services industries.

Hopefully with the approval of Measure C, the Hayward City General Election will move from June to November — Attracts more voters turn-out, charms-in new representatives to run for council members, and propels the city to its better potentials in the Bay Area.

[justinbro2002]

UC Berkeley researchers came up with this map of gentrification of bay area a couple of years ago and a good portion of down town Hayward was already being gentrified. I am sure it has only accelerated since then. I worked in down town Hayward unil last year and a lot of people are moving in from across the bay after being priced out of peninsula. Whole foods is planning a new store on foothill.