Los Gatos, California
Los Gatos real estate, neighborhoods, condos, houses, homes, market trends, history, events, lifestyle, parks, events, businesses, home, Mary Pope-Handy
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Apr. 22, 2008
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 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
3/26/08 |
4/8/08 |
4/15/08 |
4/22/08 |
|
|
| Los Gatos |
5 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
|
|
| Monte Sereno |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
| Saratoga |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
| Los Gatos Mtns |
3 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
| Cambrian Park |
59 |
73 |
53 |
54 |
|
|
| Santa Clara |
56 |
68 |
59 |
60 |
|
|
| Campbell |
13 |
23 |
28 |
19 |
|
|
| Cupertino |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
| Los Altos |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
|
| Sunnyvale |
50 |
69 |
54 |
59 |
|
|
| Blossom Valley |
196 |
251 |
200 |
202 |
|
|
| San Jose (all) |
1534 |
1882 |
1667 |
1674 |
|
|
Apr. 15, 2008
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 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3/26/2008 |
4/8/2008 |
4/15/2008 |
|
|
|
| Los Gatos |
5 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
|
| Monte Sereno |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
| Saratoga |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
|
| Los Gatos Mtns |
3 |
2 |
3 |
|
|
|
| Cambrian Park |
59 |
73 |
53 |
|
|
|
| Santa Clara |
56 |
68 |
59 |
|
|
|
| Campbell |
13 |
23 |
28 |
|
|
|
| Cupertino |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
| Los Altos |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
| Sunnyvale |
50 |
69 |
54 |
|
|
|
| Blossom Valley |
196 |
251 |
200 |
|
|
|
| San Jose (all) |
1534 |
1882 |
1667 |
|
|
|
Mar. 9, 2008
Categorized in: LG Lifestyle
Every Sunday, Los Gatans gather downtown at the Town Plaza Park area for the farmer's market. Stop by!
(Photos for this show taken with Palm Treo 700, btw. Also, when this slideshow ends, a link will appear to offer you others to view as well. Enjoy!)
Feb. 22, 2008
This isn't just about Los Gatos, but rather about all of Silicon Valley and its history. I thought this was a very interesting talk. It's not short - so grab your popcorn and settle into a comfy chair. (Remember: FMC began as Food Machinery Corp right here in the Almond Grove District of Los Gatos. It's all connected.)
Feb. 9, 2008
What are the odds that a home in Silicon Valley
will sell right now?
 Most of the homes for sale in Los Gatos, San Jose, or anywhere in Silicon Valley are not going to sell this month. In Los Gatos, there's about a 20% chance than any given home will sell. In San Jose generally, it's a lot worse than that - it's about a 13% chance that a home will sell. Here's a quick look at the numbers for these two areas of Santa Clara County:
Los Gatos Single Family Homes (95030, 95032 zip codes)
Active Listings (For Sale) = 118
Pending Sales (Under Contract) = 23
Closed in Last Month = 18
Months of inventory = 6.5
San Jose Single Family Homes (all areas)
Active Listings (For Sale) = 2921
Pending Sales (Under Contract) = 405
Closed in Last Month = 196
Months of inventory = 14.9
The months of inventory, or absorption rate, is a simple calculation of the number of active listings divided by the number of closed sales in the last month. For Los Gatos, that figure is 6.5 months. For San Jose, it's a whopping 14.9 months. (The National Assn. of Realtors says that at 6 months or more, it's a buyers market.)
What is also good to measure, though, is the pending sales against the listing volume. In Los Gatos, you can see that the number of pendings is a little higher than the number of closeds. But in San Jose, it's more than double! This tells us that the market IS improving. But it's far from being an easy time to sell. Depending on your area and price point, there's an 80-90% chance that your home would not sell this month.
How Can A Seller Improve the Odds
of a Home Selling Now?Prospective Los Gatos, Saratoga, and west valley sellers - what can you do to improve your chances of selling?
Here's a short list of the most common seller mistakes, things NOT to do:
 (1) Hiring an agent based on the list price he or she suggests (going with the highest number) is the biggest and perhaps most common error. A better practice: interview agents, hire someone, and then together work to establish the probable buyer's value of the home and work out a pricing strategy from there. It's fine to discuss pricing with the agents you interview, but do not choose your agent based on pricing, but rather on references, marketing, negotiation ability, experience, and other criteria.
(2) Related to #1 above, a common mistake among sellers is pressuring your agent to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. Some sellers believe that if they "sell" the agent on the higher value of their home, or the current condition (which might need some changes to net you the most money), the house will sell for more, and sometimes homeowners actually push agents to state their estimated value higher than is realistic. One key job the real estate professional has is to provide you with objective input on your home, both at the time the listing is signed and as the feedback comes in and the market conditions possibly change. Ultimately, only you can assign the list price on your home. Allow your agent to provide you with objective input so that you can make a good decision.
Put another way, sellers often have an inflated view of what their own home is worth on the market (this is true of agents selling their own homes, by the way). And sellers take it personally when they believe a home is worth 10% more than the agent is telling them it's likely worth. Sellers frequently feel as though the lower price is insulting, and a response spoken or unspoken may be "I'm not going to give away my home". Agents occassionally do underprice a home, but 98% of the time, if there's a pricing error, it's on the high side.
Please remember that your agent is not the buyer on your home, and you are not negotiating a sales price with your agent. You are not on opposing sides of the table. When you hire a Realtor, you are a team and you share the same goal: getting your home sold in today's market.
 (3) Another common error among sellers is simply this: not believing that the market data applies to their home. If the market has corrected X% in the last timeframe, and all the other homes in the area have gone down in sales price, it's also true that your home has gone down in value in the buyers' eyes. Home prices or values are not a lot different than those of shares in the stock market. What a share of stock sold for yesterday or last year is interesting information, but it may be totally irrelevant to what that same share will sell for today. Holding on to what the home "used to be worth" is not going to assist you in getting your home into the minority pool of homes that are selling now.
(4) And finally, a very frequently seen seller mistake that causes homes not to sell is in not utilizing their agent's skills (on pricing of course but also staging, garnering feedback, analyzing the market, etc.).
For example, often Realtors have extra training and experience in staging. Agents know that fresh paint and carpet often will get the seller the most return on the investment, and so will decluttering. Sometimes more is needed in this area too. But sellers don't always want to hear it. The ultimate sales price of the home is tied to a number of factors, including how well it shows to potential buyers.
 Another area to watch out for is feedback. If your Realtor tells you that there's a problem with the way buyers assess your home (pet odors, cooking or smoking odors, clutter or other issues), take it seriously. You will improve your odds by taking the feedback as useful input (and not as an assault). A great system that I use is HomeFeedback.com; the seller can get both individual responses and compiled statistics of the feedback. Sometimes, sellers take it personally and get upset at their agent for the information offered, even via this type of buyer response. This makes it hard to hear what you need to hear.
Put another way, what you CAN and SHOULD do to sell your home in today's market: Hire carefully! (Most agents in the Santa Clara Valley have been licensed less than 5 years and have not been through a market like this. Experience is very important. Check references and be very careful here as it is your single most important decision.) Make sure it's a full marketing plan, using both web and traditional forms of marketing.
Price carefully and realistically! With the vast majority of homes not selling, it is important to not overprice. This is not the market for "trying a price". Price it to sell. Price it to be the best value among similar homes.
Stage it! Listen to your agent.
Take feedback seriously. Estimating prices and what needs to be offered to buyers in the way of condition, concessions or other things in falling markets can be tough. Ask your agent for feedback and take it to heart. Sometimes market conditions are a "moving target" and may require readjusting.
To sell your home in this challenging market for the most money and in the fastest time, the home needs to look great and be priced well and be accessible. Recently I was at a real estate educational seminar and it was put this way: "we're in a beauty contest and a price war".
And lastly, only put your home on the market if you are serious about selling. It's a great time to buy a home in Silicon Valley, but it's not necessarily an ideal time to sell! Rick Campbell, author of The Real Estate Report, opines that we may be "at or near the bottom of the market". Of course, if you are "moving up", the overall is most likely a plus even if you take a hit on the sell side of the equation. So sellers, if you want or need to sell now, make sure that you position your home so that it's not just listed, it's sold.
Mary
P.S. Buyers, don't wait. This is about as good as it gets!
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
877 397-5391 (Direct/Toll-Free/Fax)
www.DelightHomes.com www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
emailto: Mary@PopeHandy.com
Blog: www.LiveInLosGatos.com
Jan. 21, 2008
Tired of hearing the doom and gloom regarding the real esate market? Most of that negative press is national news, not local news. Truly, it doesn't impact home values in Los Gatos if prices are falling in parts of Florida, Vegas, or even in Sacramento. The local market - our town plus neighboring communities here in Silicon Valley - is the crucial one.
Things are just not that bad for home sales in Los Gatos overall.
That said, "the market" consists of several sub-markets. It's one thing if you are trying to sell a very expensive home with an unpopular architectural style. It's another if you're marketing a modest or at least non-extravagent home in a good location with great schools. Still another if you have a view property...or a lot that could be split. And no matter what, overpriced just won't work.
A view of the big picture in the Los Gatos real estate market reveals that 2006 was a lot tougher on sellers (and folks watching their equity) than 2007 was. The first three quarters of 2007 were remarkably good for single family homes, in fact. Have a look at the "months of inventory" or "absorption rate" by month for last year for single family homes. (As a point of reference, the National Association of Realtors says that less than 6 months of inventory is a sellers market.)
For the condo and townhome market, it was even stronger. Once again, it was a little more challenging late in the year (not an unusual pattern for any year).
What about now? How is the inventory of homes in Los Gatos right now?
About one house in four is selling in this area overall. That's pretty much the case in Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Cambrian Park. In Los Gatos there are 97 single family homes available and 27 sale pending (in Saratoga it's 61 and 17, and in Cambrian Park it's 140 and 34).
The condo market, which was much stronger throughout 2007 than the single family market, is now cooler than the single family home market in town. As of today, January 21st, there are 26 townhouses or condominiums for sale and just 2 under contract or sale pending. (So instead of a 1 in 4 chance of selling, it's closer to 1 in 10.) In Saratoga it's a little better with 10 available and 3 pending. In Cambrian there are 41 "class 2" (condo/townhome) on the market and 7 which are pending sales.
Every market presents an opportunity for buyers or sellers. Where's the best real estate opportunity in Los Gatos now?
Late in 2007, it appeared to be an ideal time to be a "move up buyer" - to sell that townhouse and to buy a single family home. Now, early in 2008, the opportunity has shifted. It is now a great time to sell that single family home and to downsize into a townhouse or condominium.
The market is always changing and the micro markets can all be different from the general trends in the town. If you'd like to discuss your home, your neighborhood, or buying and selling, please send me an email or give me a call. I'd be happy to set up a time to talk with you about your unique situation.
Mary Pope-Handy
Jan. 9, 2008
The numbers are in for December 2007 and the real estate market in San Jose, Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, and Los Gatos, to name a few areas.
Cliff notes version: prices are holding, or even going up in areas year over year (this last December compared to the one before). But sales are decidedly down. So again, if most homes are NOT selling, it's not much consolation that values are rising. It's a mixed message, but that's precisely what is happening. A great home in a great area with a great price (low) will sell and for "top dollar". Anything less, no such luck!
If you would like DETAILED information on San Jose (and by district, such as Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park, Evergreen, Willow Glen, West San Jose, etc.) and the cities and towns that comprise Silicon Valley or Santa Clara County, including Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, Santa Clara, Los Altos, etc., please visit my just-updated Real Estate Report. You will find monthly and annual information on all of these areas and more. And if you'd like a commentary on how to make sense of it, please download my newsletter, which is 18 pages long and in pdf format:
http://rereport.com/scc/print/MaryPopeHandySCCannual.pdf
Right now it's quiet for many of us on the real estate front - and that is not untypical though I usually am busier in January than I am now! Things often pick up in February just after the SuperBowl. (At my house, we are cheering on the Patriots - you may know that I'm related to the QB there, so we are perhaps biased, but not too much.)
I would say to buyers: prices are NOT going down in the best parts of Santa Clara County. Interest rates are good. Inventory favors you. BUY NOW. Homes are not going down in price while you wait!
And to sellers I would say this: yes, prices are going up, but still most homes are not selling. If you wait, you risk having much more competition in the marketplace. If you're ready to sell, get your home on the market NOW.
Each situation is different. Please email or call me for specific input and assistance. I do offer a free one hour consultation to prospective clients.
Happy New Year!
Mary
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