Historic Naglee Park Home Tour in San Jose April 21 2012

The historic Naglee Park Home Tour in San Jose will take place April 21,2012 from 10am to 4pm.  Sponsored by the San Jose Woman’s Club, this is the third annual tour.  Iit includes an elegant tea served in the garden of the Catholic Bishop of San Jose, Patrick J. McGrath, a Naglee Park resident.

For all of the details on this event, please see the SJWC website page:

http://www.sjwomansclub.org/tour.html

The annual market report is out at popehandy.REReport.com and we can now learn how 2011 compared to 2010.  The median sales price for houses in Santa Clara County was off 5.3% overall.  But from one part of the valley to the next it varied wildly with 6 cities or areas finding themselves in positive territory while others were off by double digits.

In the image to the left, I’ve put into bold the cities where the median sales price of houses which sold and closed escrow in 2011 were ahead of 2010′s pricing.

What is it that makes Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Mountain View and Palo Alto “in the black”?

Most of these cities/towns are upscale, west valley communities.  But so are Saratoga, Cupertino, and Monte Sereno.

Gilroy was especially hard-hit with the housing downturn so perhaps in that case, it’s just coming back into more of a balance. (Then again, so was Morgan Hill and it’s still off by 12%.)

The LinkedIn IPO and others in the Palo Alto area drove prices up for some parts of the housing market nearby and it’s likely that this explains the positive growth for Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos Hills.  That said, it would seem that Los Altos, and perhaps even Sunnyvale would have seen stronger numbers on the same account.  Perhaps school scores are the key driver here.

Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno often behave somewhat similarly as they are adjacent to one another and often attract similar home buyers who want good schools, a nice downtown area nearby and scenic beauty with the hills.  The annual numbers show Monte Sereno down 6.7%, Saratoga down 2% but Los Gatos up 6.4%.  With Monte Sereno, there are very few sales each month and each year (only about 4,000 residents), so there can be a wider swing without it necessarily being accurate. Saratoga and Los Gatos each have about 30,000 people who call these areas home, though, so the data is much more helpful.  Saratoga and Los Gatos both have multiple school districts, views, homes with better proximity to “downtown” and more variables – I think we’d have to dig a lot deeper to learn why these two neighboring markets are so diverse.  We might also have to look at multiple years of data to see if Saratoga spiked while LG slumped to explain the difference. (more…)

Last week a Realtor friend, Colleen Kulikowski, was visiting from the Buffalo & Niagra Falls area of New York. Together we attended the California Association of Realtors conference in San Jose, CAR EXPO, where we attended some great sessions and at which I was a panelist one day on social media and real estate blogging.   I very much wanted her to see more than just the inside of a conference center, though, so in the evenings and days before and after we saw some sights along the coast and went wine tasting in Los Gatos, Willow Glen, Monterey and central San Jose at the fabulously convenient J Lohr Tasting Room.

As we  walked up to the door, I volunteered to pay for our tasting – just before noticing that it’s at no charge!  This is pretty rare today in Santa Clara County, Monterey County or Santa Cruz County wineries.  (When a tasting is free I always buy a bottle anyway if I enjoy the wine, and normally I do.)

Our hostess was very nice and gave us a printout of what could be tried that day and explained that we could select 6 and then she would “put them in order”.  Colleen and I prefer different types of wines so had little overlap in our selections – it was great to have so much variety.We both liked a number of wines and both made purchases (so they did ok on the free tasting by us).

The J Lohr venue is very pleasant, by the way, with some shirts, wine items and other things of interest which can be purchased. Several would make great local gifts.  It is light and bright, unlike some tasting cellars which may be windowless, and there’s plenty of room in which to move around.  The counter where we stood also offered hooks for our purses.  It would have been wonderful had there been more seating – two seats at the end of the bar were occupied by a happy couple – after a long day at the conference it would have been so appreciated to be able to sit down.  Most tasting rooms don’t have seating, though, so we didn’t expect it per se: just would have been a plus.

The location in Silicon Valley is exceedingly convenient, as it’s just under 2 miles from downtown San Jose (near the Shasta-Hanchett areas of central San Jose), just off the Alameda near Race Street. (That neighborhood is great for other shopping too – both Greenlee’s Bakery and Schurra’s Chocolates are very close by.) The staff is very welcoming, personable and knowledgeable. The wine is great. Price for tasting – free – can’t be beat!  If you enjoy trying wines, this is a great opportunity to do so without going far.  Overall, it’s two thumbs up.

J Lohr Tasting Room
1000 Lenzen Avenue, San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 918-2160
Open 10am – 5pm except for a few holidays
http://www.jlohr.com

If you arrived into Silicon Valley via Highway 101, driving south from San Francisco, you might believe that the Santa Clara Valley, the San Jose area and Silicon Valley as a whole has got to seem to be the ugliest place on earth. Although heavily traveled, that is not the “scenic route”.

So, too, if you are looking for a place to live and are groping to find a place that is reasonably priced, fairly safe and not a terrible commute distance. You might not even have “is nice looking” on your wish list. You might not think it’s possible if all you ever see are the ugly concrete tilt-up buildings in north San Jose, Santa Clara, Alviso, or anywhere along the 237 corridor.  That area is an architectural wasteland.

Let me assure you: there are a lot of beautiful places in Silicon Valley where you can rent or buy a home. But how do you find them? It helps a lot to have a local give you a few pointers.  I’ll give you some tips today on finding a scenic place to live.

Hills – An easy way to find a scenic location to make your home is to settle near the hills, especially those in the west valley (the Santa Cruz Mountains or the Coastal Range) as they are green year-round. Communities at the base of the west valley foothills include, in Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, and the Almaden Valley area of San Jose. All of these areas are adjacent to the hills or mountains and offer far better than average schools (many of them qualify as great – compare costs between these areas). (more…)

The St Martin of Tours School’s annual tour of beautiful homes in San Jose’s Rose Garden district is happening this weekend.  It’s a fabulous opportunity to see gracious homes, attractively decorated and remodeled, and to support the school.

If you’re new to Silicon Valley and are unfamiliar with the area, the school (and Church) are close to O’Connor Hospital (which is close to Valley Fair Mall).  The Rose Garden District is close by, surrounding the San Jose municipal park bearing the name of Municipal Rose Garden. It’s considered part of “central San Jose” and has the zip code 95126. This area, along with nearby Shasta-Hanchett, has some gorgeous older homes. Many of the streets are wide and tree lined. This neighborhood is convenient to both major nearby freeways (280 and 880) so is a great commute location. It’s an area with enduring popularity.

View Larger Map

For all the details, please see their Rose Garden Homes Tour website.