Full Spectrum Jazz Big Band will be at the Los Gatos Lodge tonight, Thursday, November 19, from 7:30 to 10:00. The band will play 2 sets. There’s no cover or minimum.
Los Gatos Lodge
50 Los Gatos/Saratoga Road
Los Gatos, CA 95032
(408) 354-3300
(this is not a paid ad... I just like their music so am giving a plug)
A moment ago, I read about a federal tax credit in my California Association of Realtors weekly newsletter, which said, "This year and next, the federal government is offering a tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of qualified water heaters, up to $1,500." Just about one year ago, we replaced both our furnace and water heater - with no such credit. Getting several hundred dollars back is a nice bonus, so I wanted to spread the word!
Are there bargain homes to be found in Los Gatos (and Monte Sereno), as in a lot of short sales or bank owned houses, condos & townhomes on the market? These types of properties have been in far shorter supply in the Los Gatos area than in most of Silicon Valley (San Jose, Santa Clara County). Yesterday I logged onto MLSListings.com and did the research on the "Area 16" or Los Gatos - Monte Sereno real estate market - tedious, but interesting. (Area 16 includes Monte Sereno, consists of the 95030 and 95032 zip codes and a sliver of Campbell and San Jose, Cambrian Park - but is about 95% Los Gatos). Results below:
If you are a Los Gatos homebuyer, you'll find that there are not very many distressed properties on the market.
Los Gatos Houses for Sale
Of the 142 active listings in "area 16" (the Los Gatos area, including Monte Sereno and an exceedingly small sliver of Campbell and San Jose - Cambrian Park), only 10 are distressed homes for sale (short sales and REOs combined). That's just 7% of the available pool of Los Gatos houses for sale are distressed properties (4% short sale, 3% bank owned).
Los Gatos Condos and Townhomes for Sale
Among the condo market, about 10% is short sales and none is a bank owned property.
Pending & Closed Sales of Homes in Los Gatos
The pendings show a lot more activity among short sales - but will they close escrow? (Unfortunately a significant percentage of short sales never close. Buyers get tired of waiting, banks request things that sellers won't do, such as sign a promissory note, or foreclosure happens prior to the short sale being completed - just a few of the reasons why the success rate is lower than with either regular sales or REOs.) Although about half of all homes in escrow are short sales, a look at the closeds over the last month belies that most won't close - only about 3% of the combined closed sales in the last month are short sales. Fourteen percent are bank owned - still a small fraction of the combined market (12% are distressed properties).
Will the info (and percentages of sale type) be different if we view it "year to date"?
It's pretty similar in that the distressed homes in Los Gatos are a small pert of the market - among the single family homes sold in 2009 in Los Gatos, about 6% are short sales, 11% are bank owned homes (about 17% of the solds are "distressed" sales). Interestingly, the amount of recently closed houses that are distressed is a lot less than the year-to-date.
Among the condo and townhome market, year to date about 8% of the sales are short sales and about 5% are bank owned home sales (13% are distressed sales). For the current month, it's a similar 12%.
The distressed element of the Los Gatos real estate market is significant but a minor part of the available, pending, and sold properties in the Los Gatos area. The lower prices of short sales and bank owned homes will have a negative effect on home valuations, but not nearly so strong as is seen in most of the San Jose area. Depending on your price point and location, there may be more or less of an impact on your home's value (or the value of the home you wish to buy).
For more posts on short sales & bank owned homes in & near Los Gatos, please see: http://www.realtown.com/LiveInLosGatos/blog/short-sales-and-bank-owned-homes
Townsfolk know, but newcomers may not, that in the Town of Los Gatos, the residents do not vote for the mayor or vice mayor. Instead, we vote for the members of the town council, who in turn vote each year on which member of the council will take the jobs of mayor and vice mayor. You can read more details about our form of government in the Los Gatos town website.
On Monday (11-16-2009) at 7pm, mayor Mike Wasserman will be stepping down as mayor and the council will vote a new member into that post and have the swearing-in also.
The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce is hosting a reception immediately following the meeting in the lobby of the town council chambers at 110 E. Main Street, Los Gatos. You can view the informational flyer for the reception online via the chamber's site.
Mike Wasserman will next be running for Santa Clara County Supervisor. You can read about him and his campaign on his website, http://www.mikewasserman.com/
Today on my Valley of Hearts Delight blog, I posted a long article on the Monte Sereno real estate market. In places I compared and contrasted it with the Los Gatos & Saratoga markets, so readers of this blog might find that piece interesting as well.
Each year during Thanksgiving week, several local faith communities join together to give thanks and welcome the entire community to join them at an interfaith service. The loacation rotates from one house of worship to another annually. This year it will be Tuesday, Nov. 24th at 7:30 pm at Congregation Shir Hadash (located at 20 Cherry Blossom Lane, Los Gatos - just off Shannon Road).
Donations of food and funds will be collected for charitable organizations. A reception will follow the service. All are welcome!
Sponsoring communites are:
Congregation Shir Hadash
Faith Lutheran Church (ELCA)
Los Gatos United Methodist Church
St. Luke's Episcopal Church
St. Mary's Catholic Church
The Baha'i Faith of Los Gatos
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Los Gatos Ward
The Presbytarian Church of Los Gatos
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Los Gatos
The Los Gatos real estate market is a moving target. How's it today? It depends on which part of the data you study. Days on the market are longer, but prices are up, sales are up, and inventory is down.
Los Gatos Houses
Los Gatos homes sold and Los Gatos homes for sale: first note that inventory is way down (from 200 a year ago to 134 now), the number of pending houses is up (from 11 to 51) and the medial sales price is up (though the average is down) year over year. Are homes still slipping in value, or are they appreciating? The answer to that question depends on a home's particular location, price point, school district, and other factors. Some homes are still going down in value, but others are rising. The days on market are longer, from 32 DOM to 52. A lot of indicators are "UP" but it's still not really easy to sell a Los Gatos home today. With 134 actives and just 25 solds, that's a 5.36 months supply of inventory - close to "balanced". With 51 pendings vs 134 actives, it looks like the odds of selling are about 38% in any given month right now.
Trends At a Glance
Oct 2009
Previous Month
Year-over Year
Median Price
$1,110,000
$1,187,500 (-6.5%)
$975,000 (+13.8%)
Average Price
$1,182,290
$1,152,560 (+2.6%)
$1,465,810 (-19.3%)
No. of Sales
25
22 (+13.6%)
15 (+66.7%)
Pending Properties
51
47 (+8.5%)
11 (+363.6%)
Active
134
143 (-6.3%)
200 (-33.0%)
Sale vs. List Price
96.2%
97.4% (-1.3%)
96.7% (-0.5%)
Days on Market
52
43 (+22.8%)
32 (+64.6%)
To see more data on the single family home sales for October, please see my RE Report for that part of the market.
Los Gatos Condominiums and Townhouses
The Los Gatos townhome and condominium real estate market is likewise better in many ways. The number of sales is up year over year (9 to 11), pendings are up (5 to 18) and inventory is down from 48 to 37. Days on the market are longer though, from 33 to 99. So again some mixed indicators. There's a shift toward more of a sellers market with the months supply of inventory now at 3.36 months. Condos and townhomes overall are selling much better than they were a year ago in terms of pricing (up substantially over a year ago, though down from last month). Buyers are more willing to buy now, probably due to fantastic interest rates and perhaps also some of the great first time homebuyer perks such as the $8000 credit.
Trends At a Glance
Oct 2009
Previous Month
Year-over Year
Median Price
$644,000
$741,500 (-13.1%)
$555,000 (+16.0%)
Average Price
$652,136
$752,833 (-13.4%)
$594,222 (+9.7%)
No. of Sales
11
6 (+83.3%)
9 (+22.2%)
Pending Properties
18
15 (+20.0%)
5 (+260.0%)
Active
37
39 (-5.1%)
48 (-22.9%)
Sale vs. List Price
97.1%
99.5% (-2.5%)
97.6% (-0.5%)
Days on Market
99
46 (+116.2%)
33 (+201.4%)
And to get more details on the Los Gatos condo market, please see my RE Report page with that data.
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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Each year during Thanksgiving week, several local faith communities join together to give thanks and welcome the entire community to join them at an interfaith service. The loacation rotates from one house of worship to another annually. This year it will be Tuesday, Nov. 24th at 7:30 pm at Congregation Shir Hadash (located at 20 Cherry Blossom Lane, Los Gatos - just off Shannon Road). 
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