Susan Cunningham lived in San Jose’s Almaden Valley for over 40 years. It was the neighborhood she came home to after days spent teaching English at a local college, the community in which she raised her children, and the home where she lived with her husband until he died in 2021.
So when the 75-year-old decided to move from her four-bedroom, two-bath 1960s house in 2023, it was not a decision she came to lightly.
“It was a really nice house — we’d put in a lot of work, did the yard over,” Cunningham said. “But it was too much house for one person.”
Leaving her South Bay community — her friends, her doctors and her gardening club — was out of the question. As she got more serious about downsizing, she found her way to Ivonne Estrada, a real estate agent with Remax, who steered her toward a few reputable condo and townhouse builders near San Jose.
“There are so many people here in the Bay Area who want to downsize their space but not compromise on the lifestyle they’ve gotten used to,” Estrada said.
Estrada prepared Cunningham for a hefty price tag even while downsizing: The median-priced condo in Santa Clara County is $1 million, according to data from the California Association of Realtors.
Cunningham’s budget was $1.2 million. She wanted new construction — a unit with at least two bedrooms, outdoor space and no stairs. That turned out to be a challenging request — every townhouse she looked at was either two or three stories, with the garage at street level and the living space above.
Here were her options:
No. 1: A two-story condo in Santa Clara near Santana Row
An exterior view of the townhouse complex Susan Cunningham moved into last year is seen on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
This 1,400 square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath townhome was spread across two stories, and came with a small balcony and a two-car tandem garage. The 361-townhome development included a mix of senior, veteran and low-income housing, in addition to market-rate homes, and it was close enough to walk to both San Jose’s Santana Row shopping district and the Westfield Valley Fair Mall. The developers, Pulte Homes, also planned to build an urban farm within the community. The unit was listed at $1.3 million.
An interior of a home at Anza at Agrihood in Santa Clara (Courtesy of PulteGroup)
No. 2: A “bungalow” in Los Gatos
The Bungalows at Bellaterra by SummerHill Homes in Los Gatos. (Courtesy of SummerHill Homes)
This two-bedroom ‘bungalow’ came with an open-concept living, kitchen and dining area, as well as engineered hardwood floors throughout the unit. It was part of the 253-unit Bellaterra development by SummerHill Homes in Los Gatos, which also included community gardens, BBQ areas and bicycle paths throughout the neighborhood. It was listed at $1.5 million.
The Bungalows at Bellaterra by SummerHill Homes in Los Gatos. (Courtesy of SummerHill Homes)
No. 3: Two-bedroom condo in Sunnyvale
Susan Cunningham considered this two-bedroom condo in Sunnyvale, built by Landsea Homes. (Courtesy of Landsea Homes)
This two-bedroom, two-bath unit came in around 1,100 square feet, and was available in two floor plans — a three-story unit, with the garage on the bottom, the great room on one floor and the bedrooms on another, or a two-story unit with the garage and living spaces on different floors. It was located just off Highway 82 behind a Safeway, meaning a short walk to groceries. The development, built by developer Landsea, featured a community park and small community center. It was listed at $1.23 million.
Courtesy of Landsea Homes
Which did she choose?
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Ultimately, Cunningham’s green thumb oriented her toward the agriculture-inspired development in Santa Clara.
“Often, these places were in the middle of a lot with no established vegetation,” said Cunningham, a master gardener. “I needed some place with trees around me.”
She liked the fact that the unit was just two stories and that it was near an older, more established neighborhood.
“When I picked this unit, it was one of the few ones left,” Cunningham said. “There was a little bit of pressure — I had to decide if this was for sure what I wanted.”
Estrada wrote the purchase contract with the developers to make it contingent on the sale of Cunningham’s Almaden Valley home. That was not a problem — the home sold in two weeks for over $2 million.
Cunningham used the proceeds to pay cash for her new townhouse. Older buyers sometimes worry about their taxes increasing significantly when they downsize because they’ll lose their Proposition 13 protections, which shield longtime owners from property tax hikes even as the property’s valuation rises. Cunningham made use of California’s Proposition 19, an expansion of Prop. 13 passed in 2020, which allowed her to transfer her previous tax base to her new home since she is over 55.
An interior view of Susan Cunningham’s townhouse on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Though Cunningham moved last July, she’s still getting settled. As a former English teacher, she has a lot of books to unbox. She’s also culling her collecting of furniture — the two-bedroom townhome just can’t fit as much as the Almaden Valley home.
She feels lucky to have sold her former home when she did. Shortly after, interest rates increased, which meant buyers had less spending power. It’s possible that, had she listed in the fall, she would’ve gotten lower offers as a result.
Susan Cunningham in her townhouse on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Even as some homebuyers begin to question the value they get from an agent, Cunningham is happy she worked with one. She’s not sure she could have made the move without her real estate agent’s help.
“It was a little scary,” she said. “I’d never done this before alone.”