Los Gatos is "Tree City USA" for 29 years in a row! A celebration at Daves Avenue School yesterday included talks by local officials and by students and, of course, the planting of some new trees. (Photos courtesy of Jim Handy.)
Shovels ready for work.
The site was prepared ahead of time
A tractor does the heavy lifting with two young trees to be planted at Daves Avenue School.
Three trees were planted in all.
An assembly of students gathered to hear talks by officials and classmates.
Los Gatos Mayor Barbara Spector addressed the crowd.
Adults did the first round of planting
And most importantly, the students helped to plant too.
How's the real estate market in Silicon Valley? One way of knowing is to keep a pulse on the number of short sale listings.
Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, and Los Altos all continue to feature very few short sale listings, and these markets remain stronger. They are still "buyer's markets", as is all of Siicon Valley, but prices are rising even as the number of sales is low.
In Silicon Valley's entry level real estate market, though, such as Blossom Valley, east San Jose, south county and south San Jose, is another story. There, it is a deep buyer's market. Prices are dropping. Blossom Valley's home values have been plummeting in recent months.
Where there are a lot of short sales, values decline. Where there aren't many short sales, prices appear to be holding or rising.
But the good news is this for all of Santa Clara County: overall, it does not appear that there is a sharp increase in the number of short sales for now. Have a look at this week's snapshot of Silicon Valley short sales and see. It is fairly flat overall. Perhaps the worst of it is behind us?
Active Listings of Short Sale Single Family Homes, Condos, Townhouses
Los Gatos, the land of pricey real estate, is also the home to pricey and classic automobiles. There are several high-end dealerships in downtown, as locals know..
Recently, though, it was owners who met in Los Gatos, not dealers. The Northern California Corvette Association gathered at the cabana of Belwood of Los Gatos last weekend, and what a pretty site it was!
This event was “Legends bag stuffing” hosted by Greg and Leta Reynolds, and it will be on the group's website soon.
Neal Golding, the group's historian (and the photographer of these beautiful pics), tells me that the club is always looking for new members, and invites those interested to please visit their website.
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If you live in Los Gatos, Campbell, or nearby parts of Silicon Valley, you are probably familiar with the good work done by Eastfield Ming Quong, or EMQ, in its children & family services. Next weekend is their big fundraiser, The Great Silicon Valley Caper. This is a tremendous opportunity to support addiction prevention work and services to kids and families here in Silicon Valley. Please visit their website at www.GreatSiliconValleyCaper.org to learn more.
And if you can't swing the caper, there are other ways to help kids and families in need. Local shops which support the nonprofit include The Happy Dragon Thrift Shop in Los Gatos (245 W Main St., Los Gatos, CA 95030 tel (408) 354-4072) and The Butter Paddle in Saratoga.
Why do short sales matter so much? In a nutshell, "Silicon Valley short sales" are a precursor of real estate price drops. That is, where you find a lot of short sales, you will see "downward pressure" on pricing. Where you see few or no short sales, you will not find this same pressure.
Most short sales do NOT sell before going to foreclosure. There's a lot of hype about buying your first home in San Jose as a short sale to save money, but there's no savings if you wait three months and the lender never approves the deal. (Or just as bad, the lender waits so long to say yes that the home is no longer worth what you offered on it.)
Below please find a list of homes being marketed as short sales in Silicon Valley.
What trends do YOU see?
Active Listings of Short Sale Single Family Homes, Condos, Townhouses
There are so many "boundary issues" around Los Gatos that it's mind boggling. For newcomers to the area, it's already diffucult to understand how the school district lines do not follow the town boundaries.
Then there's the whole issue of "mailing address" vs being "in the town". The 95033 zip code means "Los Gatos Mountains" and also means "not part of the actual Town of Los Gatos". No voting rights. No police (sheriff instead). And so on.
The Los Gatos mountain schools are highly regarded. Normally, the elementary schools feed, eventually, to Los Gatos High School. The schools are a leading guage of property values, so the question of which schools is a BIG deal physically, emotionally, and economically. The schools are a leading factor in Silicon Valley real estate values.
Just now I got a Google alert that some kids in the Lakeside Elemenary area of the Los Gatos Mountains are actually being bussed to Rolling HIlls Middle School in Campbell. Rolling HIlls is a good school but it's nowhere near downtown Los Gatos (or the mountains). Instead, it's in the area where Campbell, Los Gatos, and Saratoga meet - over near Pollard and Quito Roads.
Yesterday I saw this beautiful lavender colored vine, wisteria, adorning an old home near St. Mary's Church in downtown Los Gatos (Almond Grove District area). The photo was taken with my Treo, so the quality is not great, but you get the feeling: perfect blue skies, vibrant colors, classic old Craftsman style home. A perfect spring day in Los Gatos.
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle.
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, ABR, SRES, E-PRO
Luxor Real Estate Group
Mailing Address for Mary: PO Box 440 Los Gatos, CA 95031-0440
877 397-5391 (office/toll-free)
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Los Gatos, the land of pricey real estate, is also the home to pricey and classic automobiles. There are several high-end dealerships in downtown, as locals know.. 
There are so many "boundary issues" around Los Gatos that it's mind boggling. For newcomers to the area, it's already diffucult to understand how the school district lines do not follow the town boundaries. 
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