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Live In Los Gatos

Update for Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga Real Estate Market

Jan. 12, 2009

Categorized in: Homes & Housing Market

Tagged with: campbell, condos, houses, los gatos, market trends, monte sereno, real estate market, san jose, saratoga, silicon valley

The real estate sales numbers are in for Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, San Jose and all of Silicon Valley for December 2008 and for the year as a whole.

Santa Clara County Real Estate Report for 2008 (annual report - you may also find on this site the annual reports for Los Gatos, the Los Gatos Mountains, Campbell, Saratoga, etc. as well as quarterly reports and monthly reports - monthly report links found at the bottom of this post).

You already know that things have been bad: money's hard to borrow, homes are hard to sell, jobs seem to be threatened.

There was some good news to be found, though.

Home sales increased in the second half of 2008, and we expect that to continue
By the end of 2008, the number of sales were up year-over-year from 2007
Prices are down - in some areas prices have "rolled back" two to three years. In other places, it's closer to four years. This is good news for buyers!
If your downpayment is strong and credit is great you can get a loan and the news for you is great: interest rates are very, very attractive now! FHA loans are reappearing! Sellers are considering carrying second loans!
Banks are finally getting it together for handling REOs and short sales. New divisions are appearing to handle the increased workload.. These sales should be smoother in 2009.

How about our local market in the west side of Silicon Valley?

The upscale communities of Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Almaden Valley, Cupertino and other foothill areas with good schools did not fare as badly as most of Santa Clara County in 2008, but they are not immune from the prevailing winds, either.

Los Gatos single family home sales graphs - info courtesy of REReport, used by permission (subscriber).

Overall, inventory is up and time on the market is up while the list price to sales price ratio is down.

Please visit my Real Estate Report at www.PopeHandy.ReReport.com for the complete, interactive report for last month, last quarter, or last year - countywide, by city, or by area of San Jose, or click on the following links to see the most recent monthly report for these areas:

Los Gatos Single Family Homes
Los Gatos Condos/Townhomes

Monte Sereno Single Family Homes (there are no condos or townhomes in Monte Sereno)

Almaden Valley Single Family Homes
Almaden Valley Townhomes & Condominiums

Cambrian Park Single Family Homes
Cambrian Park Condos and Townhouses

Campbell Single Family Homes
Campbell Townhomes and Condos

Willow Glen Single Family Homes
Willow Glen Condominiums and Townhouses

(apparently no homes closed escrow in the LG Mountains in December - in Nov there was one and in Oct one)

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Campbell Fire Near Los Gatos Border Fills Sky with Smoke

Jun. 13, 2008

Categorized in: Photos of Los Gatos

Tagged with: belwood, campbell, fire, los gatos, photos, silicon valley, smoke

View of part of the 2 alarm blaze as seen from Highway 880/17

Tonight another fire, this one smaller but more local, darkened the skies over the western part of the Santa Clara Valley with smoke. At about 3pm, a grass fire broke out close to the onramp from San Tomas Expressway in Campbell onto Highway 17 southbound toward Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. By 4:30 or so, when I drove through, the plume of smoke rising was quite substantial. And by evening, the air was positively eerie in Los Gatos with strange tints coloring the sky and the landscape.

View of the smokey sky from Belwood of Los Gatos on June 13, 2008 - Photo by Clair Handy

The late afternoon and early evening sky was a taupe color in places. Light coming in through the windows of our home was tinted a tungsten type of hue. This photo taken by Clair Handy from Bacigalupi Drive in Los Gatos (in Belwood of Los Gatos).

View of the smoke-filled sky in Belwood of Los Gatos on June 13, 2008. Photo by Clair Handy.

Another neighborhood view in Belwood.

The sun turned to a bright orange ball against the tinge of brown from the grass fire in Campbell.(Photo by Clair Handy)

View from the Handy Family backyard in Los Gatos - the wind made the smoke-filled areas very distinct from the cleaner sections of sky.

View of the palm trees on Harwood Road in Los Gatos with the strange backdrop of a smokey sky.

A (non-enhanced) view of nearby palm trees. The whole sky was just creepy looking.All of these pictures are unedited except for cropping, of course.

Sunset as viewed on Bacigalupi Drive in east Los Gatos on June 13, 2008. Amazing sky.

My sister, Barb, is visiting for a few days and she commented that the sky reminded of of when Mt St. Helen's blew in 1980. I was not around for that, but heard plenty about it from my many friends in Washington and Oregon. I don't think it was quite so dark, but it was certainly odd looking tonight.

Mary Pope-Handy