How is the Campbell real estate market?   First, here are some quick stats, care of my RE Report for Campbell:

Year over year, prices are way up.  Inventory is up a little month over month, but off by a third from a year ago.  Look at the ratio of active listings (24) to those sold (23) – they are almost the same, meaning there’s about one month of inventory in Campbell today for houses and duet homes.  Short sales and foreclosures are gone.  Days on market are up a little from last month, but almost 24% lower than the same time last year.  All in all, it’s a strong seller’s market for Campbell home sellers right now.

What about the condo market?  Here we see that the most affordable housing is going off like a geyser – the median and average sales prices are up, year over year, by around 65%. That is tremendously strong growth.  Have a look at the numbers!

Again, we see that the distressed inventory has evaporated.  This is part of the reason why there’s such a tremendous shortage of inventory.

Next we’ll take a brief overview of the “big picture” in Campbell’s housing market by looking at statistics related to currently listed homes for both houses and condos or townhomes there. (Charts and data by Altos Research, to which I have a subscription and permission to use here.) Median list price of condos and single family homes in Campble.

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The other day I was hunting for local maps of Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) dating back 100 years or so, and although I didn’t find exactly what I wanted, I did find a treasure trove that I hadn’t expected to find at all.

Here please find a tiny snippet of a USGS Map from the late 1890s (actually part of the Palo Alto Map). According to my husband, who has a hobby of viewing and collecting maps, each “dot” on this image represents a house. If that is the case, you can see how sparcely populated Saratoga and Cupertino were at this time.

And what is that Azule Springs? Was it another hot springs type resort, like Saratoga Springs? A map like this raises a lot of questions!

If you love – or at least enjoy – history, I invite you to visit the USGS website and look at the historic maps there. One section includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and the coastal areas such as Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. Another section of the map includes Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Campbell, Almaden, Cambrian Park, Santa Clara and many parts of San Jose. 

It’s fun to see where things “used to be” and how they “used to be called”. Take a few minutes and enjoy!

After several long, painful years of being “under water” in Silicon Valley, your home now is in the black, that is, you’ve got equity.  You’ve been wanting to move up, or downsize, or relocate – but couldn’t really budge until now.  With the new market conditions, and the freedom to now sell, the question now is whether or not that’s what you want to do.

There’s not an easy answer or a one-size-fits-all response for this, because there are so many variables.

• If you are moving within Silicon Valley, it’s important to also consider the market for the next home – is it easier or harder to buy a property there? You ideally do not want to sell one place and find yourself unable to buy the next one!
• If you are making this the last house you’ll own, and are moving to a rental retirement community, it’s much less complicated.  Your main goal may be to sell before the next correction happens so that you get the most possible for your property without risking a market downturn.  Right now it’s good in most of the San Jose area. Will it continue?
• If you’re selling an investment property or a rental home, it’s a different kind of math problem.  You’ll want to know what the net income and return on investment will be for the condo or house you’re selling vs the one you’d like to buy.  Some markets are ultra hot right now (Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino) and it can be difficult to purchase there, but the rental rates are very high since these are work hubs.  It will be challenging to sell in Morgan Hill or Gilroy and buy in Palo Alto or west San Jose with Cupertino Schools

In many cases, making the decision to sell one home and buy another for any reason (schools, commute, downsizing) will involve analyzing from several angles.  Sometimes it makes sense to pay more but to have a much improved quality of life.  Or it may make sense to get a lesser home in a better school district because you place a premium on education.  In many cases, it’s not about the money, it’s about your goals.   Because it’s a multi-faceted question, often it takes a year or two or more to make the decision after becoming “un stuck” with the reappearance of equity.

But that’s a good problem to have!

How is the Monte Sereno real estate market? Because the city is small, with just about 4000 residents, there usually are few homes listed for sale or selling, and with small numbers we can get seeming volatility.  Additionally, some of the properties carry hefty price tags, so reductions in those can really fiddle with the stats overall.  Here are the quick statistics for the closed sales in the last complete month to give a sense of how things are going. Sales data comes from my Monte Sereno Real Estate Report .

Given that the supply of homes to study is tiny, what can we tell from this data?  Listings are way up – as is the case for the county as a whole.  The sale price to list price ratio slipped a little but the median and average sale price is up both month over month and year over year.

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What do you need to know if you are shopping for a home in Silicon Valley right now?

First, you need to understand that possibly more than in any other time, it’s a deep seller’s market, meaning you most likely will be competing against multiple offers. Homes for sale are not as abundant as normal, and there are a lot of buyers trying to purchase a house or condo in the San Jose area.  Not enough supply, too much demand equals multiple offers and rising prices.  (You can check the current Santa Clara County real estate market statistics at popehandy.rereport.com.)

Secondly,if you want a chance at buying a property in Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties, you must have a great “offer package”.  It is imperative that you have a solid down payment, 20% is a minimum but most often it takes 25% or more to convince sellers that they should take your offer over the others.  Cash is king and you may get out bid by an all cash offer, especially if it’s also a non contingent offer.

If you include any contingencies for inspections, loan and appraisal, they will have to be fairly short to compete in multiple offers.  A 17 day loan contingency is a pretty sure fire way to get eliminated from multiple bids. When there are 10 or more offers, frequently at least 1 or 2 will be “all cash” and just as many have no contingencies.  Biggest obstacle to overcome is the appraisal contingency.  Because prices are rising so fast, many homes won’t appraise – and sellers know it, and therefore won’t take your offer if you have an appraisal contingency in place. Read the rest of this entry »

The Los Gatos real estate market continues to improve but the home buying conditions are much easier here than in nearby areas such as Cupertino, Almaden, and Cambrian.  Here are the current numbers, per my Los Gatos real estate report (click on the link for full information).

The median and average sales prices are up noticeably month over month and also year over year on the average SP and also the median sale price.  Days on market are down at 34. Read the rest of this entry »

For people relocating to Silicon Valley, there can be some significant surprises (beyond the “sticker shock’” of our home prices in the San Jose area). Here are a few pointers to help you in your transition:

• The school district boundaries do not follow the boundaries for the city or town
  • For instance, in the Town of Los Gatos there are 3 school districts
  • Saratoga has seven school districts (four elementary and three high school districts). Being in Saratoga could mean having Cupertino Schools or Moreland Schools or Saratoga Schools or, if you’re in the mountains over the village, even Los Gatos Schools. Part of San Jose has San Jose Unified Schools, but in some areas its Union Schools, Alum Rock or other districts. The Cambrian Park area of San Jose, for instance, has 3 elementary school districts: Cambrian, Union and San Jose Unified.
  • The reason for this confusing situation is that the school district boundaries were drawn before all the cities and towns in Santa Clara County were clearly defined (or the boundaries expanded)
  • School performance scores are probably the # 1 driver behind the value of any given location. Many parents choose the home only after deciding upon either a school district or even a particular elementary, middle, or high school. (Read more about understanding school scores on my Silicon Valley relocation blog.)
• The mailing address city or town may not be the “actual location” of the property
  • This is a rare situation, but sometimes the mailing address will say ˜Los Gatos” when in fact the home is part of San Jose or Campbell or is an unincorporated area of the county. This has to do mostly with postal routes or with unincorporated areas using a mailing address for a long time and then being incorporated.
• We have “expansive clay soil” here and water is a big issue. (Please see related post on buying hillside homes in Silicon Valley.)
• Most of our housing is ranch style tract homes. Were sorry about that and apologize in advance for the visual assault that this creates. Developers went nuts in the post WWII boom and created massive urban sprawl, one of the only things that isn’t so delightful in the Valley of Hearts Delight.

A few non-real estate Silicon Valley surprises too:
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