California's fastest-growing city is now majority Asian

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / July 6, 2023

The Asian population is growing across the country, and three cities in the Bay Area’s Tri-Valley have some of the fastest-growing Asian communities.

Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon were among the top 10 largest cities, with at least 30% of their population identifying as Asian, that had the highest growth since 2010, an analysis of census data shows.

Dublin is the fastest growing city in California overall and its Asian population is fueling that growth. In the last decade, the suburban city’s Asian population grew from about 12,000 in 2010 to nearly 39,000 in 2020 — a 219% increase, according to census data. The Asian populations in Pleasanton and San Ramon — two other Tri-Valley area cities — grew by 94% and 68%, respectively, during the same 10-year period.

The Tri-Valley has had an infusion of new residents who are seeking better housing opportunities and school districts, said Steve Minniear, a volunteer city historian in Dublin.

Paywall link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/dublin-pleasanton-asian-population-18171246.php

According to the link, Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore are the places that tend to have housing options young families are looking for -- bigger houses with room for kids and/or parents.

[usonian]

1. My goodness, and eight others in the Bay Area proper (not in the tri-valley area)

and some more outside the bay.

[Auggie]

3. Traffic on 680 between Dublin & Pleasanton has gotten a lot worse in recent years

Back-ups were there hadn't been back-ups 10 years earlier ... the 580 interchange and Stoneridge Drive, West Las Positas Drive and Bernal Avenue exits, particularly. Now I know why.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. That's my family's part of the world. Both my moms side and my (bio) dad's side

One brother in Dublin, the other in San Ramon (though moving 5 miles north to Alamo ... any day now).

The growth in Dublin/Pleasanton has been staggering the last 15 years. Where there used to be huge empty tracts of land, it's just ALL apartment buildings, even climbing up onto the once barren hills north of the 580.

It's a pretty ideal location for tech workers (apart from traffic SUCKING there most of the time these days) because it's about 50 mins to Silicon Valley, 20 mins to Oakland, and 40 mins to Downtown SF (at low traffic times at least). It's a nicely central location IOW. Plus BART goes there and takes you into the City relatively quickly.

Plus the Tri-Valley area itself has a LOT of big businesses, or at least big companies have offices there.

[Auggie]

4. I can see the attraction. It's a good area.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. It's nice for sure ... but as long as I'm not working in Silicon Valley, gimme Lamorinda any day :)

i.e. Lafayette/Moraga/Orinda.

Walnut Creek also works (esp. since my folks own two homes there, and is where I went to High School ) but if I had my druthers ... I'm all about Orinda, man.

Lived there as a kid (76-79) and I still just love it. I drive around my old haunts almost every time I go home to visit my folks and just still always go ... this town is freaking amazing!

Prices are ridiculous but it is so gorgeous, with a cool history. Basically it was where wealthy people from SF and Oakland built their vacation homes/ranches in the 1920's-1940's. It was 'far flung' back then. So there's a lot of large, custom, beautifully maintained homes from that era (many are Spanish hacienda/ranchero styled), and even the newer ones tend to be really tastefully done, nestled among the prodigious oak trees that basically cover the hilly environs of the town.

It's like FairyLand I swear

[Auggie]

6. Walnut Creek zip code 94595 was recently in the news too ...

From the Chronicle:

Home values in the 94595 ZIP code on the south side of Walnut Creek grew 0.8% from May 2022 to May 2023 — the only one to show year-over-year growth out of all Bay Area ZIP codes with significant home sales in the last year and a population of at least 10,000 people, according to data from real estate listings site Zillow.

Prices in this ZIP code have stayed steady since the beginning of the year and even increased some, inching closer to the home value peak from last summer. Typical home values there reached an all-time high of $770,000 in July 2022; at the end of May, they stood at $768,000.

The main reason for this increase is the lack of inventory — a common situation nationwide, said Antonia Quanstrom, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker who lives in the ZIP code.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/walnut-creek-home-price-18183652.php

Link reports the lack of inventory is because a lot of homeowners refinanced in 2020-2021 when interest rates were around 3%. They're reluctant to give up those low mortgage rates and are instead remodeling and adding additions.

I like Orinda. Had friend who lived there. Amazing house on a ridge with views that didn't quit.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. I lived in 94595 as adult, house rental with friends. Def. nice out there.

The zip as a whole is mostly Rossmoor though.

The part of that zip I really love is the Newell Rd/Lilac Avenue area, just southwest of Kaiser Hospital.

It's really beautiful back there, lots of tree canopies arching over the streets, and very nicely kept homes, mostly from the 50's-70's vintage

[MrsCoffee]

8. And a 90-120 minute commute to tech corps.

Each way. Just saying.

My husband has been making that commute for 10 years. I’m thankful they’ve only had to work in office three days out of the week since Covid restrictions let up.

For a while he took the shuttle. That gets old fast.