In Gilroy proper, no home has sold for more than a million, but
that’s likely to change
Gilroy – The province of million-dollar homes, once bounded by guardhouses and hills on the outer edges of the community, could creep into Gilroy’s traditional core with the help of one couple seeking seven figures for a Princevalle Street home.
Michael and Bente Hewitt are asking nearly $1.2 million for their residence at 7590 Princevalle St., just blocks away from the city’s historic downtown and the First Street shopping corridor.
Hewitt said the $700,000 they spent on the 4-bedroom, 2-bath Country English-style home set a record for the area five years ago. Since then, the couple has installed new hardwood floors, replanted the gardens in the front and back yards, and remodeled the bathrooms and kitchen.
“We have put a lot of work into this house,” Bente Hewitt said. “It has a lot of soul. I would much rather have this house than one in Eagle Ridge. That’s who we’re competing with.”
Of the 35 homes in Gilroy listed at $1 million or more, the Hewitt home is the only one located inside the city’s traditional core (between Santa Teresa Boulevard and U.S. 101), according to Patty Filice, with Intero Real Estate Services.
A lack of offers led the Hewitts to reduce the original $1.3 million price after 30 days, but they remain confident the home will fetch top dollar given the considerable tax breaks it receives for its historic architecture and their efforts to keep it in top condition.
“What you have on Princevalle is a lovely older vintage home,” Filice said, “and Princevalle has always been considered cream of the crop location-wise.”
While a million-dollar sale in the city’s core would set a record, the area as a whole has seen its share of spiraling home values.
Susan Hughes, the Intero real estate agent who represents the Hewitts, just listed a smaller home around the corner on Carmel Street for $739,000.
“There’s quite a few in the $689,000 to $749,000 range that have sold in that area,” Hughes said.
Real estate agents and homebuilders agree the area offers a charm missing from the tract homes in luxury communities like Eagle Ridge and Country Estates, in the southwest and northwest edges of the city.
“There’s something about the core, where your child can ride a bike to the ice cream store or you can walk to the library,” said Susan Jacobsen, with Starritt Realtors. “It’s a community feeling.”
But the city’s historic neighborhoods are not the only ones seeing home prices spin out of control, Jacobsen said. A home near South Valley Middle School, off Murray Avenue, recently brought in $500,000, she said, while homes in the Northwood development off Pappani Drive are selling for more than $600,000.
“Those were originally built as low-income houses,” Jacobsen said, referring to Northwood. “When they were first built 30 years ago, they probably sold for $27,000 to $30,000.”
Despite an economy with room for improvement, Filice predicted that home prices in the city center would continue to soar as low interest rates and zero-down payment deals attract flocks of first-time homebuyers.
A few years ago, she said, first-time buyers could find homes in the center of Gilroy in the range of $300,000 and $400,000.
“Now it’s in the six hundred thousands,” she said. “This is a market that in my opinion has been pushed up from the bottom.”
Aytch “H” Roberts, vice president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, predicted the upward trend would continue as homebuyers spill over from San Jose into South County.
In March, the median home price in Gilroy stood at $660,000 and the average price at $747,747, according to a real-estate listing service. In the same month last year, the median price was $516,000 and the average price was $556,406.
“There’s no real strong indicator that jobs are going away,” Roberts said. “People are here, they need houses and they’re going to bid them up.”
