MOUNTAIN VIEW — An apartment complex in Mountain View has been bought by a coast-to-coast real estate alliance in a deal that offers fresh signs of strength for the South Bay residential market.
The multifamily residential hub at 881 East El Camino Real in Mountain View was bought for $87 million, according to documents filed on Jan. 6 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
An apartment complex at 881 El Camino Real, seen in October 2024. (Google Maps)
This price for the complex of 149 apartments is perched on the high side of per-unit values of South Bay residential hubs that have landed new owners lately.
The new owner of the 149-unit apartment complex is a group that’s affiliated with San Francisco-based Interstate Equities Corp. and New Jersey-based PGIM, the global investment management unit of Prudential Financial, a life insurance titan.
The four-story complex consists of one- and two-bedroom units and features a swimming pool among its amenities, according to the Apartment Finder website. The apartment hub was built in 2016.
The price for the Mountain View residential property works out to roughly $583,900 per apartment.
By comparison, here are the prices for some other apartment deals of note:
— Ascent, a 650-unit apartment complex at 5805 Charlotte Drive in south San Jose, was purchased in December for $322.8 million. That equates to $496,500 a unit.
— ViO, a multifamily residential hub with 234 apartments at 5700 Village Oaks Drive in south San Jose, was bought in September for $100 million, or $427,400 a unit.
Ascent was bought at a price that was 17.4% higher than the assessed value of $275 million in January 2025. The ViO apartment property fetched a price that was 2.4% above its estimated assessed value.
Similarly, the just-bought Mountain View apartment complex produced a price that was 9% above its assessed value as of January 2025. Assessed values are one metric that can be used to gauge a property’s worth.
Still, while these three transactions point to pockets of strength in the South Bay apartment sector, some residential hubs are struggling beneath the weight of financial setbacks.
The Fay, a 336-unit, 23-story apartment tower in downtown San Jose that opened in December 2024, faces foreclosure due to a delinquent $182.5 million construction loan.
The Neo on First, a 50-unit complex in San Jose that’s just south of downtown, is in default on a $21 million loan and also faces foreclosure on its financing.