My house is directly across the street from the largest homeless encampment in San Jose. I worry the noise, trash, and smell since we bought 12 years ago will reduce our home’s value.
My wife says there will be no effect at all due to the monster sellers market.
How do I calculate how this chaos will affect my home selling price?
When we moved in, we had a lovely city park across the street which a huge old forest, stream, running patth, softball diamonds, library. All directly across the street.
But NOW, the softball bleachers are a place to hang laundry. The library is where the soup lines, portapotties, and men lay around. The forest contains a hundred homeless shacks / tents, and big mountains of dumped garbage.
The question is, how do I estimate the impact on my home price due to the chaos? It’s directly across the street, so the impact will be very different around the corner or at the end of the block. There are no comps for beautiful-to-public-nuisance homes.
Opinions?
Sorry to hear your situation and is unfortunately going to affect desirability for future buyers. In terms of estimating the impact, make some downward adjustment (say 5 or 10%) to comps in your immediate neighborhood. Though the camp is not right opposite, the overall neighborhood is going to suffer some downward trend, and your property may have an additional 5 to 10% due to close proximity. In a slow market, houses like this may sit for a long time. However, in a hot market, as you wife is suggesting, buyers may not care much (may try to negotiate some discount though). In any case, the positive is that you are going to have a decent appreciation from 12 years ago.
You can look at similar homes nearby and see how they’re doing in terms of selling prices. Even if there aren’t exact matches, you can compare homes in nearby areas facing similar issues. It’s also a good idea to chat with a real estate professional who knows your neighborhood well. They can give you personalized advice based on the current market and local trends.