A long way from Laurel

If you want to know how far Laurel is from the Bay Area, just consider what it costs to purchase and fix up an old house down there. Just this week, we watched an episode in which the client purchased a very run-down 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bathroom home for just $25,000. While it needed a lot of work, Ben and Erin turned it into a beautiful, quite comfortable home for just $75,000 more. While that money didn’t buy granite countertops or marble floors, the client did end up with a completely redone kitchen —with all-new appliances, fixtures, cabinets and laminate countertops — an all-new bathroom, refinished hardwood floors, a new front door, a new window or two and new drywall throughout. All for a grand total of $100,000 — including the purchase price.

Although the particular episode we watched was filmed in January 2021, I just checked and, according to Realtor.com, the median listing price for a home in Laurel right now is just $126,500. In Redwood City? Try $1.9 million. I did the math: The median Redwood City home costs 15 times what the median home in Laurel costs today.

Given those numbers, is it any wonder we are seeing more and more articles and columns pointing out how difficult it is to buy a home and live in the Bay Area? I consider myself extremely lucky that my wife and I bought when we did; however, even back then, in the late 1980s, the price for our Redwood City home was at the very top of our range and it was a struggle for us. If Zillow (a popular online real estate firm) is to be believed, our house today is worth about six times what we paid for it. Granted, our remodels in total probably cost us as much as we originally paid for the house but, even so, we’ve tripled our money. At least on paper.

My father used to tell us that we shouldn’t consider our home to be an investment. Although he well knew that home values can and often do rise over time. However, in order to realize that increase in value, you have to sell your home — and then where would you live? Yes, if my wife and I wanted to move to a place like Laurel, we would certainly find ourselves with a pile of extra cash; and we all know or have heard of people who have done just that. But that would mean leaving behind the friends we’ve made and the community we’ve grown to love over the past 35 years and starting all over in a very different place. Not to mention beaches, mountains and some of the country’s best climate.

Our area’s high housing costs seem a clear reflection of supply and demand. For years there has been a relatively limited supply coupled with high demand from folks with fairly high incomes. That demand may be weaker than it once was, but recent local real estate activity indicates it still remains. Our supply is limited by a physical lack of space — especially here on the San Francisco Peninsula — plus a reluctance on the part of existing residents and their governmental representatives to enable the construction of higher-density housing. Although this last has changed somewhat in recent years, given the recent significant rises in labor and materials costs. In the short term, we aren’t likely to build enough — quickly enough — to cause prices to level out, much less decline.

Laurel’s population peaked in 1960 and has decreased by about one-third since then. Thus, not only is there limited demand for homes in that city, existing supply (some of which, granted, needs to be rehabilitated in order to be livable) seems more than adequate. Consequently, their low prices — which certainly are tempting.

However, for the foreseeable future, we intend to remain here — a long way from Laurel.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.