Real estate insights from someone who's been on all three sides of the table.

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Program Guide

Work Here, Live Here: Subsidized Workforce Housing in Downtown San José

The City is master-leasing 197 apartments at Flow San Jose, the 23-story tower at 10 East Reed, and renting them below market, with one-bedrooms from $2,700 for households earning 80 to 110 percent of AMI. Check eligibility, price a floor plan, measure the commute and park the car with four tools.

Project Update

What's Being Built Next to The 88: 168 Affordable Homes at Second and the Paseo

San José approved a seven-story building with 168 apartments, nearly all income-restricted, on the parking lot between The 88 and the Hammer Theatre. The building, the 2026 rents, the fee stack, and how the approval came together in five months.

Project Update

What's Being Built at 210 Baypointe: The Towns @ Baypointe and 292 Rental Apartments

SummerHill is replacing a 1980s office building with 334 homes: 42 family-sized townhomes pre-selling from $1.24M, and a seven-story rental building with 15 moderate-income apartments. The first major site to break ground after North San José's decade-long housing freeze.

Data Update

The 2026 Bay Area Rent and Income Limits Are Here, and the Changes Are Weird

Santa Clara hits $205,500 and the SF metro jumps 7.6%, while the East Bay's median barely moves and its low-income tier jumps 8.6%. Why the tiers pulled apart, what it means for rent ceilings and BMR prices, and a county-by-county lookup tool.

Capital Stack

East Santa Clara Senior Breaks Ground with a $100k/Unit City Subsidy

Sixty-eight affordable senior apartments at roughly $783,000 apiece, and San José only had to put in $100,000 a unit. A rare HUD Section 202 advance, subsidy contracts on 63 of 67 units, and a County ground lease explain the rest.

Project Update

Coyote Creek Village: What's Being Built at Montague and Seely

Three developers, four product types, 1,430 homes on one of Silicon Valley's last historic farms - 1,059 already moving. A status report on the masterplan, its financing, and the incentives behind it.

Analysis

ADUs Are One of California's Most Successful Housing Programs: San José's Numbers Show Why

San José logged 1,806 ADU applications across 2023–2025: a near-constant 50 a month. What the record-level data shows, and how to build a backyard unit that pencils.

Housing Policy

The Fourth Lever: San José Created 197 Workforce Apartments Without Pouring Concrete

The city master-leased 197 units in a distressed downtown tower to create workforce housing — no new construction. A fourth lever in the affordable housing toolkit, structured as recoverable capital rather than a grant.

Analysis

RISE / Berryessa TOD: Eleven Sources Behind a 195-Unit Affordable Tower

A layer-by-layer breakdown of the eleven funding sources and $175 million it took to finance a single affordable tower at Berryessa BART.

Analysis

The 1977 San José Planning Document That Explains Today's 7.5x Affordability Gap

San José's home price-to-income ratio rose from 2.0x to 10.3x in five decades. Here is the math behind the divergence.

Housing Policy

Building Through the Storm: San José's Counter-Cyclical Housing Push

Zero starts in 2024. Now 1,444 units under construction. How targeted fee relief is restarting the pipeline.

Adaptive Reuse

Good Bones: What Makes an Office Building Convertible?

Geometry determines feasibility. Why 75% of office buildings can't become housing, and how to spot the ones that can.

Housing Policy

Beyond Zoning: Why 22,000 Entitled Homes Are Waiting for a Market Shift

San José entitled nearly 22,000 units, but only ~7,000 pulled permits. The bottleneck isn't land use—it's whether the numbers work.

Developer Resource

The BMR Pricing Formula That Actually Pencils

A step-by-step framework for calculating compliant below market rate for-sale prices across Bay Area and California inclusionary jurisdictions.