Let's Move to Alameda During the Coronavirus Pandemic
It is a cliche that life never goes exactly according to plan.
My wife and I agreed at the beginning of 2020 that we would buy our first home on Alameda Island, ideally to live there for the rest of our lives. A couple of months later we saw a house we loved, just as we came out of the pre-approval process. Our offer was accepted the next day.
This is not the way to home buying process is supposed to work in Northern California in this time after the recovery from the great recession. Couples spend months or years looking for houses here, and put down many offers that are outbid or lose to all cash offers, before they finally become homeowners. According to this article on Trulia's site, "the average time spent shopping is about four and a half months." And that's nationally, not in the hyper competitive Bay Area.
We must be the luckiest people on the planet.
Around the time we put our offer down, I had the idea to do a blog about life on the island. About the restaurants on the island, the parks, the outdoor activities, the shops, the views, and eventually about sending our kids to school here and so I purchased this domain.
Our luck (sort of) ended just as our offer was accepted. Cases of the illness had started to balloon in the state and daily life was about to change for everyone in the bay area, and then the state, and soon the nation. The sale still went on without a hitch, as will our move, since all of the businesses involved are considered essential services, but with ten times the stress and a very interesting life in our apartment in the interim. We even closed in 18 days compared to the national average of 46 days.
So here we are, six days away from our move. Sitting amidst towers of boxes, drinking champagne out of assorted jars. I had hoped to write all about life out and about on the island, but it looks like the first few months may be about living life trapped inside, and in our backyard for a while. Here we go!
My wife and I agreed at the beginning of 2020 that we would buy our first home on Alameda Island, ideally to live there for the rest of our lives. A couple of months later we saw a house we loved, just as we came out of the pre-approval process. Our offer was accepted the next day.
This is not the way to home buying process is supposed to work in Northern California in this time after the recovery from the great recession. Couples spend months or years looking for houses here, and put down many offers that are outbid or lose to all cash offers, before they finally become homeowners. According to this article on Trulia's site, "the average time spent shopping is about four and a half months." And that's nationally, not in the hyper competitive Bay Area.
We must be the luckiest people on the planet.
Around the time we put our offer down, I had the idea to do a blog about life on the island. About the restaurants on the island, the parks, the outdoor activities, the shops, the views, and eventually about sending our kids to school here and so I purchased this domain.
Our luck (sort of) ended just as our offer was accepted. Cases of the illness had started to balloon in the state and daily life was about to change for everyone in the bay area, and then the state, and soon the nation. The sale still went on without a hitch, as will our move, since all of the businesses involved are considered essential services, but with ten times the stress and a very interesting life in our apartment in the interim. We even closed in 18 days compared to the national average of 46 days.
So here we are, six days away from our move. Sitting amidst towers of boxes, drinking champagne out of assorted jars. I had hoped to write all about life out and about on the island, but it looks like the first few months may be about living life trapped inside, and in our backyard for a while. Here we go!
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