Silicon Valley Blvd street sign
Sam Shueh
Realty One Group
Silicon Valley, CA
When we moved to California from mid America I brought my snow shovel not wanting to part it. It started collecting rust and dust as I never had only see snow flurries flying for a few minutes in 37 years. It’s never overly wet, cold, or hot. There’s a nice environment that allows one taking a walk, hike, or sail boat any time of the year. You never get cabin fever when you’re anywhere in Silicon Valley. Everything is open and easy to get around. There’s a calmness and relaxed feeling that friends have enjoyed upon visiting. A lot innovation became a product during walking and at coffee shop. Software like Java is an example where it was conceived.
As noted, the weather here is mild and sunny most of the year with about 300 sunny days per year. Winter is distant faint memory. Trashed my shovel finally. Wanting to play with snow? Sierra ski resorts is a few hours away. Lake Tahoe anyone?
Like many parts of West Coast metropolitan, it is culturally diversified. Tension and unrest seen elsewhere is almost non-existent. We accept other culture, denomination our relaxing life style often sets trends for the rest of nation. Remember Jacuzzi?
In 1938 two Stanford engineers named William Hewlett and David Packard developed an audio generator together as HP-200 for Walt Disney cartoon Fantasia. It was built in the detached garage on left side of this house. Company name HP was coined as a result of flipping a coin. It could be called PH. The HP Instrument division including famous HP-35 hand held calculator calculating loan amortization in Cupertino is now Apple's new Spaceship campus.
Birth of Silicon Valley -HP Palo Alto original laborary in the garage ( Sam Shueh)
One little unknown part of San Jose, in 1959 an localAmerican computer factory was visited by a Russian dignitary named Nikita Khrushchev. As he watched all the cars along California freeway 101, he noticed all were occupied by just the driver. He accurately predicted traffic congestion and Americans can ran out of gasoline someday. He was not interested in the computer manufacturing but claimed Russians have them also and Russian machinery are better according to his son Sergio Khrushchev (Russian Leader Visit to San Jose plant). One item of significant interest to the Russian leader was the cafeteria and abundance of food served. How can Americans eat that well? It must be a put on! He ordered his assistant to slip inside the cafeteria next day and find what American workers really eat. Next day, Americans ate better than when you were here. The landmark of this 29,000 sf cafeteria is currently being restored by another company. The rest of the operation has gone off shore. Today, the former IBM campus is renamed as Avenue One with high rises, stellar detached town homes. Just $1 mil will do. Cheap cheap for 2100 sf acreage lot.
One commonality with 170,000 high technology workers in Silicon Valley is most have a technical background coming from just about every Institute of Technology with a dream to become an accomplished. Two kids from Cupertino made it. Facebook, Nest, Google, Intel, Cisco, Linkedin, Apple, Yahoo, eBay are just some local innovations.
IBM cafeteria, a landmark circa 1960s, South San Jose
Avenue One housing (2014) by Sam Shueh, South San Jose
The resident educational levels are among the highest in the nation. San Jose (and by extension, Silicon Valley) is often named one of the best places to raise a family. Many spelling bees and young scientists in the national contest are from the area. Lately, Silicon Valley was also acclaimed as the most physically "fit" city in the nation with designated streets for bike lanes often by giving up a car lane.
Despite the growth that brought talented people coming here, the Valley has retained its natural beauty close to the Pacific Ocean while not distant from Sierras mountains. It is difficult to find another place as desirable as Silicon Valley which was called Valley of Heart Delight when it was world's largest apricot and prune production center.
One drawback of having abundent high paid jobs is from 2010 through 2015 with 385,800 jobs added only 58,000 housing permits were issued. High cost housing now make the area one of the most expensive places in North America to live.
The median home price for a modest tract home is $970,000. People are often priced out. These are all multi-million dollar homes as shown by Sam Shueh.
SOURCE:
Khrushchev-visits-silicon-valley 1959.
Shueh, Sam How is my Silicon Valley home worth? (Silicon Valley Home Values)
Shueh, Sam Image of America Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley ), Arcadia Publishing.
Silicon Valley Real Estate July 2016 (San Jose area real estate update)
Shueh, Sam (Real EstateBlogs)
Sam Shueh Realtor
I've called San Francisco South Bay home for over 30 years. We love this area and all it has to offer, and I enjoy sharing what I know about homes. I documented in several books about Silicon Valley history. I have much expertise in real estate...please give me a call. SamshuehRealtor@gmail.com
(Four-O-Eight) 425-1601
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