Hollister seeing ‘exponential’ growth in housing
Many cities are feeling the impact of the sky high prices coming down from Silicon Valley.
This trend is impacting communities like Hollister, where the city expects its population to soon hit the 40,000 mark.
Coming into Hollister off the 156, one of the first things drivers will see is brand new housing under construction.
Downtown Hollister is also bustling with people and cars, and with more people comes more traffic.
“Like there is no room to drive on the road. The 25 gets so crowded, it’s crazy. Yeah, it’s too much,” said Ari Fowler, a Hollister resident.
“The highways are getting really bad. They need to widen them big time,” said Terry Clark, the owner of Beeswax Candle Studio.
“Hollister is a community right now that is experiencing exponential growth in terms of housing,” said Hollister Development Services Director Bryan T. Swanson.
He says the city has at least 14 residential projects going on right now, adding they get a lot of people from San Jose looking for more affordable housing. But it is also local residents who are interested in buying.
“A large portion of our home buyers for these new homes are actually people in our community here…they’re trying to upgrade, buy a bigger home with families,” said Swanson.
The median sales price of a single family home in Hollister was $510,000 in 2017. That was up seven percent from what it was the previous year. The city is not just expanding in housing, however.
Residents will see a new commercial development go up on a 17-acre plot of land off Highway 25 near Park Street. It will have big box retailers like TJ Maxx and restaurants like Panera Bread and Denny’s. That means new jobs, estimated to be around 200 to 300.
“Having jobs locally where people don’t necessarily need to commute out of our city and county is something that we really can’t place more importance on,” said Swanson.
“I’m happy to see a change because for a long time it was just that old Hollister mentality that it’s going to be one small town, we only have Target and a McDonald’s,” said Fowler. “But you have 40,000 people living here and there’s no jobs because nobody wants the town to grow, it’s time for a change.”
The new commercial center should begin construction this fall. It will take about 18 to 24 months to complete.
