CUPERTINO - We’ve heard from homeowners and realtors alike, there’s something about to take off around Apple’s new campus. It's not the spaceship looking structure. It's home prices.
It's why realtors like Andy Tse are going door-to-door in surrounding neighborhoods, asking homeowners if they know anyone willing to sell their home.
“We're just walking around the neighborhood, because the market is really hot right now,” he told one person.
Tse says he has wealthy clients who work at Apple.
"It's just what you've got to do right now. There's no inventory.
There's like 500 houses on the market in Santa Clara County,” Tse said.
The day we followed him around, Tse was turned down by every homeowner.
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“No way,” one person said.
“Not even slightly interested,” said another.
Tse thanked them, handed them a housing market report, and moved on.
"You're lucky to get one in 200 to say, you know, 'funny you should come by and ask. Me and the misses have been talking about possibly making a move,” he said.
We ran into some longtime homeowners who, once they hear the pitch, are looking into it.
Steve Miller lives a half mile from the construction, and will often arrive home to find real estate agent pamphlets.
He had no plans to sell his home when we asked a month ago. Then, last week he looked up his home’s estimated value.
"It was kind of surprising like wow, that's a big jump in a short period of time."
"The closer the campus is to going live, I think you're going to see the prices of housing in this area continue to ramp up,” Miller said. “So, if I was considering I don't think it'd even be until the market is really near the top. No motivation for us to jump out early."
Frederic Dominioni lives on the other side of the new campus. He moved into a home in October, knowing its value would spike. He paid $1.4 million and did some renovations.
"We're happy here. I don't see any reason for us to move. It's not like we have to move. If you come with the right price? Sure,” Dominioni said.
He's even put a "make me move" listing on Zillow. Stating, he'd be willing to move for nearly $2 million.
"You've got one to two houses in this area for sale. In Mountain View you've got one or two. There's super high demand. The perfect storm if you will,” he added.
Of the 35 homes sold within a mile radius of the new Apple campus last year, the average listing price was $1.34 million. The average selling price was $1.45 million, about 8 percent more.
Realtors expect that percentage to go up.
"I've got a couple clients right now saying that will be calling me in a year or two, or three, they think they're home values are going to increase 20-40 percent. I think they're right,” Tse said.
