Where In Los Gatos Can This Be Seen?

Various kinds of art can be discovered in downtown Los Gatos, but also in nooks and crannies from one end of our scenic town to the other.

Recognize this? Know where it is?

Update as of 8/5/08:   HINT - it's in a residential neighborhood in the 95032 zip code.

Is Being a Few Blocks from Los Gatos Schools at the Top of Your Homebuying Priorities List?

                 Open House Saturday August 9, 2pm to 4pm
               
          Great Home, Great Location, Los Gatos Schools!

Last month I listed a great home that's in an ideal Los Gatos location - close to award-winning, highly acclaimed Los Gatos Schools: Van Meter Elementary School, Blossom Hill School, and Fisher Middle School. It's also a quick jaunt to the wonderful shops, banks, grocery stores and restaurants at the intersection of Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard.

Recently, the house at 120 Magneson Terrace in Los Gatos got a new roof and a big price reduction. It is a tremendous value!

Details:

120 Magneson Terrace (off Magneson Loop and Los Gatos Blvd or Shannon Road)
MLS # 814262
3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Bathrooms
Living Room, Dining Room, Bonus Room (office, library, music room)
Hardwood Floors
Air Conditioning
Brand New Roof
Quiet cul-de-sac location
appx 1800 SF home
lot size appx 8700 SF

Yesterday the sellers lowered the price dramatically AGAIN, and it's now a fantastic buy at $1,250,000! Hurry!



Folks who should consider this home include those wanting:

"Walk to Schools" or "Bike To Schools" or "Two minute drive to schools"

As well as those who want to be close to buslines, close enough to shops, banks, grocery stores, and restaurants that they could get there without a car.

For more details, please visit www.PopeHandy.com and click on Mary's Featured Properties.
Click this link to see a Virtual Tour of 120 Magneson Terrace, Los Gatos, CA


Best regards,
Mary Pope-Handy

The Colorful Los Gatos History Walk Returns This Sunday

Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the Los Gatos History Walk (and blogged about it here on Live In Los Gatos - click the link to see photos from the tour on May 5th). The tour, "A Walk In and Out of the Past" will be presented this Sunday and I want to give it my heartiest endorsement as a great way to catch the flavor of our town's past.

Get all the details by visiting the Los Gatos Observer's article on the fun & educational tour this Sunday.

Taking a Pulse of the Silicon Valley Short Sale Situation

What's happening with the number of short sales in Silicon Valley? Are they rising or falling? How does this impact the real estate market in various parts of Santa Clara County?

Let's have a look at the numbers over the last few months in selected areas of Silicon Valley. Below, please find the number of active (for sale) short sale listings of single family homes and condominiums or townhomes in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and other parts of the San Jose area.

	3/26/2008	5/18/2008	7/19/2008
Los Gatos	5	8	7
Monte Sereno	1	0	0
Saratoga	0	1	4
Los Gatos Mtns	3	2	3
Cambrian Park	59	63	68
Santa Clara	56	63	69
Campbell	13	19	23
Cupertino	1	1	0
Los Altos	0	2	1
Sunnyvale	50	58	51
Blossom Valley	196	217	190
San Jose (all)	1534	1777	1708

While there's a noticeable rise from late March to late May, the numbers are backing down a bit now.

Can we infer anything from this?  Yes and no.

First of all, we do not see a worsening of the market overall - the doom and gloomers would like us to think that the sky is falling on the local real estate market, but looking through this lens, it doesn't appear to be the case.  If the numbers of short sales were swelling, it would portend lower prices because short sales themselves tend to sell for less, and most short sales eventually turn into foreclosures - and they also sell for far less than homes which are lived in and loved.

On the other hand, we are not done seeing loans reset. That is, a lot of folks took out mortgages a few years ago with adjustable rate loans that would be level for 3, 5, 7, or 10 years. As some of these get reset, there may well be more people in trouble who scramble to sell with a short payoff to the bank or who otherwise cannot make the new, higher payments. So we may be getting new waves of homes in the short sale pool.

Whenever I do a post on foreclosures, short sales, and bank auctioned homes, I get emails and calls about how to buy one of these homes at a steal of a price. So I'm going to quickly recap my input on what to do if you are a bargain hunting buyer:
 

1. The biggest problem with short sales is that although the seller wants to sell, the buyer wants to buy, and the agents want to help their respective clients, the success of the transaction depends on the lending institution approving the sale. In my experience, this is where the problem is - most often, the banks either do not respond (at all, ever), or they take so long to respond that the home's no longer worth what the buyer inititally offered. Worse, some lenders use a servicing company to handle payments, and some of them would rather service a loan through foreclosure than facilitate a short sale.  I spent a lot of time in early 2008 putting short sale transactions together, only to have the bank ignore the offers.  My advice: save yourself time and effort and buy a home that you can actually close on. (I am not working on short sales any more in this market.)
2. When short sales fail to produce a closed transaction, the property continues through the foreclosure process. The next step is the auction by the bank. There is no role for the real estate agent here, so we Realtors can't help you with this stage. With the auction, you'll need a large percentage of cash on hand and you have NO right of recission - no ability to investigate the property and later change your mind. No congingencies - which I think is very, very dangerous.
3. Bank owned properties have gone all the way through the foreclosure process. They are usually vacant (in some cases, the bank allows the former owner to stay on as a tenant so that the house is not vacant and vandalized). The bank wants to sell and will permit you to do inspections and to have a reasonable contingency period. The main risk here is that the house may have been beat up by the former owners on their way out. That doesn't always happen, but it's certainly a possibility. Bank owned homes are usually offered on the MLS, and a Realtor or other real estate licensee can assist you in purchasing one of these. Agents are not afraid of "working these" because they know that the bank needs and wants to close escrow - so there's a chance for a happy ending here (unlike with most short sales).

Whether you want to buy a distressed property in Silicon Valley or just want to know how these sales impact your home buying, home selling, or home value, the data is important for understanding how the real estate market is faring here. I'll continue to keep you updated in the coming weeks and months.

Best regards,

Mary

Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor,  CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS, ACRE
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes Since 1993
Co-Author: "Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley"
Keller Williams, Cupertino, CA  (Silicon Valley)
877 397-5391 (Direct/Toll-Free/Fax);   408 204-7673 (Cell)
www.DelightHomes.com     (PopeHandy.com)
emailto: Mary@PopeHandy.com
Blog: www.LiveInLosGatos.com & www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com

What Is A Patio Home?

Most homebuyers and sellers in Los Gatos and Silicon Valley generally are familiar with the terms "condo" or "condominium", "townhouse" or "townhome" and "single family home". But what about "patio home"?  What type of residence is that?  It's an unknown to many consumers - and many real estate professionals too!

A patio home is sometimes referred to as a zero lot line home. It is a house (not attached to any other home) in which the structure is built against one of the property lines.

In a regular single family home, the building has a few feet on each side between the structure and the property line. In other words, you can walk around all four sides of the home without going on anyone else's property.

That isn't the case with a patio home.

A patio home is build up against the property line such that the owner cannot walk all the way around the house without going on someone else's property.

There are advantages and disadvantages of patio homes. Advantages include more privacy than a townhome or condo would offer, and better use of land adjacent to the home since there aren't small 5-8 foot side yards, but instead something more sizeable and useable.

Disadvantages include the lack of windows on the side of the home which is built on the property line and the inability to protect the side of the home that functions as a fence or boundary for the neighbors.

By way of example, if the side of your patio home that lines the boundary gets excessive moisture because the neighbors vigorously water their plants and don't worry about hitting your house, that's a problem. Additionally, since you cannot see what's happening without asking the neighbors if you can go on their land to keep an eye on your exterior wall, there's a risk that the structure could be getting damaged and you'd never know it. So there's a loss of control and a loss of information that's intrinsic to this type of home.

Additionally, many patio home communities have an association fee and that also needs to be factored in.

Should you buy a patio home? It's on a continuum between townhomes and single family homes. It may be the best compromise for you, or it could be a big headache. My thinking, generally, is that if you can buy a single family home for the same amount, your money is better spent there. But if you're in the market for a townhome, this is definitely a step up and worth a little stretch.

How Does the Los Gatos Real Estate Market Compare This Year to Last Year?

The Los Gatos real estate market is composed of many micro-markets in housing type, location, price point and condition. A Los Gatos condo in one school district may be in an entirely different type of market than an estate home with a view of the Santa Clara Valley or a golf course, of course.

Overall, though, the market here in Los Gatos is healthier than in many other areas within Silicon Valley. One one of measuring the health of the housing market is to follow the absorption rate. The absorption rate reflects the amount of time it would take for the current inventory of homes for sale to be bought up if no new homes came on the market and sales continued at their current pace. It can be days of inventory, weeks of inventory, or months of inventory tracked.

The National Association of Realtors uses 6 months of inventory as the tipping point between the market favoring buyers vs sellers. Under 6 months' inventory is said to be a sellers' market, and over 6 months is said to be a buyers' market. In the San Jose area, though, we are behind on housing starts and are used to homes selling fairly quickly, so most sellers will not feel as though 4, 5, or nearly 6 months' of inventory is really a market in their favor. They expect to sell in a few weeks, not a few months.

Here's a graph I did of the months of inventory in the Los Gatos real estate market for the first half of 2008 (in green) and also, for comparison's sake, the first half of 2007:

As you can see, the market was worse for buyers (better for sellers) in the same timeframe in 2007 as it is now. Since the months of inventory is a ratio of that month's closed sales to its active inventory, this data really reflects the month or so prior in terms of when purchase agreements were signed and accepted.  So looking at the numbers in April really shows you what was happening appx 30 days earlier (most of our escrows are about 30 days long).  In 2008, then, May and June were much better than the 4 months prior, and they reflect contracts written in April and May. June 2008 wasn't bad compared to earlier in the year, but clearly, the peak of the market was April because May's closings were the best.

Other data supports this too. I have a subscription to the Real Estate Report and the numbers there suggest that the highest median and average sales prices for single family homes peaked in April too (go to the page for Los Gatos and view the graphs).

Much of 2008 has been off in terms of the usual sales patterns but most years, the peak of the market is somewhere around March or April. At that point, prices frequently hit their high point of the year - great for sellers, not so great for buyers. By summer, the market cools down most years and sellers may be frustrated that they are not seeing the prices from a couple of months earlier in the year. For buyers, though, summer can be ideal since inventory is good and sales are a little lower.

No one can predict if the market will go one way or the other, but I would say that buyers are in a good position now if they want to get into a nice Los Gatos home.  The loan situation has calmed down and market conditions are favorable for most segments of the Los Gatos real estate market and there's a nice selection now. My advice to Los Gatos home buyers is simple: don't wait!

John N. Pope, Obituary

John N Pope, Jr (2-27-1930 to 6-29-2008)

John and Pat raised three children in Santa Clara and Saratoga. John was very supportive of Pat’s real estate career, which she began in 1956 (when very few women were selling real estate).

John’s passions were travel, history, politics, family and faith. When the family was young, John and Pat made many frequent trips to the east coast to see the Pope relatives. The travels later expanded to include Europe, Great Britain, central America, the Virgin Islands, and elsewhere.

There will be a funeral Mass at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church in Campbell on July 9^th at 11am, followed by burial at the Santa Clara Mission Cemetary and a reception afterwards. A memorial Mass was held in his hometown of Morristown, New Jersey, on July 2nd as his only sibling, Helen, and her family live nearby and many other relatives were assembled in Cape May, NJ, for a family reunion, when he died.

Donations in John’s honor can be made to ARH Recovery Homes, Inc.
1101 S. Winchester Blvd.,Suite J-220 San Jose, CA 95128  Phone: 408-236-6657 info@arhinc.org.  He had been very involved with this alcohol recovery home, at one time serving on its board, and would love to have its good work furthered on his behalf.