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July 30, 2008

Google this...

On the rare occasion when the Chronicle stumbles across an interesting story, I like to point it out in fairness, because I'm only to happy to point out just how sorry the paper is for a city this size....

The Google Effect: How the company's shuttle line affects San Francisco real estate

At a time when so many San Francisco neighborhoods are experiencing a certain sagging in the market — the inevitable aging of the eternal boom — it's interesting to note that a few places have proved themselves strangely resilient. Why some neighborhood markets remain lively while others go into hibernation or fall ill is a matter of constant deconstruction for real estate analysts. Whether they focus on supply vs. demand, industry hype vs. media horror stories, a revitalized shopping area or a new transit hub, it's often difficult to disentangle the myriad factors that influence the worth of a given neighborhood.

So when at a recent brunch I heard some Noe Valley residents discussing what was bolstering the value of their homes, I was particularly fascinated by a single factor they had all settled on: the proximity of the Google Shuttle stop. None of the group was employed by Google, but that didn't seem to matter. "I know some people are mad about the noise," one of them told me. "But we're not complaining."

Could it be that a few private bus lines would actually affect the real estate and residential rental markets of a big city like San Francisco? At first, it seemed like a bit of a stretch. I mean, how big could the phenomenon be? Google does not release specific data about routes, number of trips and passengers, but company spokesperson Sunny Gettinger told me the company shuttles 1,200 employees daily from around the Bay Area to its Mountain View campus.

Click here for the complete story...

Posted by Jeff Brooks on July 30, 2008 07:10 AM | Permalink

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