First have a quick look at the thumbnail image on the right.  You can tell it’s some sort of map with official looking writing in the lower corners.  Perhaps most salient even in the smallest image, one important feature of the plat map is that it provides the orientation of the properties (north/south/east/west).  That info is now readily findable online, but this used to be the easiest way (and most accurate) to answer the question “which way does the home face?” Look at the map, find the parcel and you’ll know its orientation.

The plat map also provides the Tract Number (and often the name given by the builder for the subdivision – in this case, Carlton Terrace). Along the right side, you can see the source of this information: the office of the county assessor for Santa Clara County.

Let’s look a little closer still.

Looking at an individual address or lot, you’ll note that there’s more information.  The house number for each parcel is listed, the shape of each property given (parcel boundary) and the approximate lot dimensions are provided too.  When a dimension is the same on both sides or as with the adjoining property, it’s not listed.  In the case of these homes, most of them have 60′ to 61′ wide lots and approximately 110′  to 113′ deep lots -  very typical lot size for a Cambrian Park home.

What about the large numbers in the middle of each property?  One of them is the builder’s lot number and the other is the parcel number assigned by the to the property by the county assessor’s office. The parcel number should be underlined and more prominent (bolded, italicized etc.).

The assessor’s parcel number, or APN, for each property is created by referring to the Asessor’s Book Number, the Assessor’s Book Page Number plus the individual parcel number, with each of these sets separated by hyphens.  To find the book and page number, look in the corners of the page with the plat map – they will be listed clearly.  In our sample, note the lower right hand corner.

So for the homes on this plat map, the APN will be 421-18- whatever the parcel number is for that particular home (the bolded, underlined, italicized number).

Can this information be really useful to you? You bet it can.  Sometimes we see homes for sale in which the lot size is said to be a certain amount, say 6000 SF, but having seen the yard, it appears much, much larger (or smaller). By studying this page, you can check the dimensions and see if the number quoted as the lot size is correct or not. 

Several times in my career I have found a lot size to be under-estimated or under-reported in the county records.  This is especially true with irregularly shaped lots (such as pie-shaped lots or lots with many sides to them – more than four).  If a builder primarily subdivided with 6000 SF lots, that number may be inputted to the county records for every parcel, even if the one you’re looking at buying or currently own is much, much more.

I won’t say it’s a fun geometry project, but learning that a home is sitting on a 9000 or 10,000 SF lot rather than 6000 is money in the bank if you’re buying or selling such a home.  Many Realtors will not get the lot measured in person or referencing the plat map, but this extra step is extraordinarily helpful in understanding a home’s true value.   So first we must understand how to read a plat map, then know and act on what we see if there’s anything that does not look correct.

Plat maps are so important that if there’s a small typo in them, the lender for a buyer will not fund the loan until it’s corrected. (I know, it happened to me about 10 years ago on a Willow Glen home I listed and sold on Arata Court.)  When you get the preliminary title report, whether you’re buying or selling, don’t ignore it!  The rest of the contents of the prelim are also important, but for today I want to encourage agents and consumers to take the time to look also at the parcel map at the end of the prelim and see if everything looks correct.  It may save you both time and money to catch any errors upfront.

Today’s San Jose Mercury News featured a front page article by Sue McAllister (an excellent reporter) on Santa Clara County housing values.  She shares that Zillow says that we’ve hit bottom here in Santa Clara County.  That is certainly good news to home owners accross Silicon Valley!  And I don’t disagree that countywide, we’re definitely looking up right now.  No guarantees for the future, but Zillow says that the threat of a second or double dip no longer seems likely. Whew!

Unfortunately, there’s another real risk to this recovery and it’s not the “shadow industry”. This time it’s homeowners walking away because they’re underwater (not because they can’t afford to stay, but because they choose not to).  Sixty Minutes did a segment on this phenomena of home owners walking away last night., which you can watch via this link.

But back to today.  Looking at the big picture, Santa Clara County’s median sales price is up about 5% over a year ago (for both condos and houses). That doesn’t mean that homes have all appreciated 5%, but rather that half of all homes sold for more and half less at a point which is five percent greater than the amount of a year ago.  It does indicate improvement, but most of that is due to more expensive homes which are selling now.

Some areas are “selling like hotcakes” when a good home comes on the market and is priced aggressively.  In those areas, home prices are trending upwards.  The myth is that it’s happening everywhere, in every price range, and in every type of residential real estate for sale.  It’s just not true.

I cannot cover every part of the San Jose area, or every type of home for sale, but will provide a few examples (again) of how terribly local “the real estate market” is.  In some areas it can change block by block! 

What follows are graphs from Altos Research (to which I have a subscription) displaying the median list price of homes for sale in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Saratoga – both condominiums & townhouses as well as houses & duet homes.  The historical period shown for all is the last 3 years.

The median list price of Sunnyvale houses for sale.

And the same data in Sunnyvale but by price quartile. Please note how very different the market has been from one price point to the next.  The least expensive homes hit the “bottom” more recently than the most expensive ones – the top quartile had its worst period in the winter of 2008 but the lowest quartile hit it a full year later.

What about condos in Sunnyvale?

Viewed broadly, it does not look like the townhouse or condominium real estate market in Sunnyvale has hit bottom for sure.  We see a tiny uptick at the end – but it’s hardly what you could call “sustained” at this point.

 When we look at the market for Sunnyvale townhomes and condos by price quartile, it appears that the most expensive ones may be trending upward in price.  Are they leading the recovery?  Perhaps.  But we’ll need to see more of this to know for sure.

I think I’ve made my point that real estate is hyper local.  Santa Clara County is clearly in recovery as a whole, but not every part of the market is recovering – some parts are still faring quite badly and are seeing further price declines.  But let’s continue on and have a look at the median list price of Santa Clara homes for sale next.

Santa Clara does not look like a market in recovery or which has hit bottom yet. Maybe – but we need to see the lack of decline continue on a lot longer before we could be comfortable declaring that the worst is over.

Here we can see that the lowest priced homes really do appear to be doing better than the rest of the Santa Clara market.  The bottom middle quartile, though, still appears to be having a slippage in list prices.  This is a much different “picture” than just viewing the Sunnyvale market as a whole.

Condominiums and townhouses for sale in Santa Clara next:

The movement upwards is encouraging, but it started so recently that we’re not yet sure if this is a blip or a new trend. Hoping for the latter.

The newness of the trend is affirmed when we look at the Santa Clara condo market by quartile: mostly what we’re seeing is that the declines have stopped. That is good news, at least!

Finally, let’s see what’s happening in the high end or luxury market of Saratoga. 

What a bumpy market it is in Saratoga!  While it looks like “the worst” was about a year ago, the current downward trend is not comforting.  Is more bad news still ahead?  Let’s see how it looks by quartile.

Now isn’t this odd? It doesn’t look nearly so bad in Saratoga when broken down by quartiles!  The most expensive properties in Saratoga are doing the worst, and the most affordable ones are appreciating, though.    Perhaps a closer look still would help – just the top and bottom price points by themselves.  Here’s a view of the top quartile of the median list price of Saratoga homes for sale.

The luxury or estate market in Saratoga is NOT yet in recovery.  In fact, it is still in decline with no evidence of a recovery even begun yet.

And the bottom?  This chart represents the most affordable single family homes (houses & duet homes) for sale in Saratoga over the last three years.

Anyone shopping in Saratoga (especially in the areas with the very best schools) knows that this is an appreciating market – homes in this strata of the market are going up every month, especially if the home is in good shape and priced right.  Although the recovery there is still rather new, I do believe that this part of the market has seen its bottom and is truly in recovery.

Saratoga condos and townhouses – how’s the market?

The condos and townhouses in Saratoga had a little rally last summer, but then it dropped down lower in the winter and had been rising until recently. Will it look different by quartile?

Here again it looks like the bottom quartile, or most affordable Saratoga condos for sale, is recovering .  The upper price points now appear close to flat but the most expensive ones have been behaving very differently from the rest of the pack since last summer.  Perhaps this was a vote of confidence among those who are comfortable?  The luxury condominium market in Saratoga is more than merely shelter, of course, and most Santa Clara County home buyers cannot fathom purchasing a townhouse or condo over a million dollars, let alone pay the hefty home owner association dues that goes with that lifestyle.

Saratoga CA luxury townhouses and condominiums – median list price of homes for sale (top price quartile):

Summary

Today we had a look at the real estate markets in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Saratoga – both houses and condos and in all price points.  We can see that while the whole of Santa Clara County does appear to be past the bottom of the market, there are still some segments of it which are declining in value, and others are rising.  To make the most of your real estate purchase or sale, it is extremely important to understanding what is happening in your part of the market.  Please contact me to chat about buying or selling a home within your area, budget and home type within Silicon Valley.

Here’s a look at the numbers from my Real Estate Report for single family homes: 

Among the sold homes, the median price has been slipping.  This is an “overall” number though, not reflecting price points, location, or school districts.

Here’s the same info for condos and townhomes in Saratoga:

As you can see there were no sales of condos in Saratoga in November – hence all the zeros.   What is managing to sell are the very least expensive homes – not the luxury condos.

Now let’s turn our attention to what’s happening now amoung the active or for sale homes in Saratoga (using Altos Research, to which I have a subscription).

Here’s a graph displaying the overview of list prices for condos and single family homes in Saratoga:

Oddly, list prices appear to be up even though the median sales price is clearly down.  Are sellers out of touch, or what’s happening?  We’ll need more data to answer that.

Here’s a similar graph but just of the single family homes, and this time with a breakdown by price quartile. (Please note that the info would be even more precise if broken down by school district, but this particular program doesn’t yet filter by schools.)

Interestingly, the middle quartiles showed upward movement in pricing over the last 12 months. I have buyers in the lower 3 quartile and it seems that there’s not much inventory among thouse in Saratoga or Cupertino Schools, and when the home is nicely fixed up and has no issues (problems), prices seem to be inching up. 

And again, list price of condos with price points included.

Condos in Saratoga did not fare as well, as you can see. This has been true throughout the county – since single family homes have become more affordable, consumers are often electing to purchase a house rather than a condominium.

Inventory for houses, townhouses/condos in Saratoga:

It’s seasonally typical to have more inventory in summer than other times of the year. Going back a few more years, please note where the peaks are found – always sometime in summer. (Single family homes only.)

It’s less visible, but still visible, with condominiums and townhouses in Saratoga:

Days on market for both housing types:

Houses by quartile is not much different – DOM is rising across all price points:

It is strangely disjointed in the Saratoga Condo market, though. I can’t explain why this is so “all over the board” based on just this data.

My suspicion is that the homes with the better schools are faring the best, but that’s just a hunch based on how well homes usually sell – it’s not provable with this info at hand.

If you’re interested in buying or selling a Saratoga home, please contact me. I’ll be happy to meet with you for a no obligation initial consultation.

To read about the market in particular parts of Santa Clara County (both cities and districts within the city of San Jose), you can read my full on-line report here: http://popehandy.rereport.com.

There is also a 4 page printable version with more insightful articles about the annual market, here: http://rereport.com/scc/print/Mary.PopeHandySCC.pdf   

Economists are mixed on what will happen in 2010 and beyond, but many think that this year will be better than last, and 2011 will be a “hot” market again as prices are largely undervalued right now.

How low is the inventory? It’s way off from last year in most parts of the west valley. But remember, last year was unusual.  (Below are the numbers for single family homes, or houses.)

How much is this year’s inventory off from the average of the last 6 years?

Almaden: down appx 10%
Cambrian: down appx 18%
Campbell: down appx 20%
Los Gatos: up appx 6%
Saratoga: up appx 38%

Once again, “easy answers” allude us. 

If we were to push this further, we’d find that certain price points (or bands or strata) in the market are way above or below the typical numbers.  It is very hard to generalize accurately.  Anecdotally, though, it seems as though there’s very little on the market as far as my buyers are concerned (and right now, my buyers are looking at properties in Santa Clara County ranging from the 400s to between 1 and 2 million). 

For information on your particular situation, please contact me.