Mount Umunhum sits high on the Santa Cruz Mountain range, and from there enjoys spectacular views. Looking inland, you can see San Jose & most of Santa Clara County, on a clear day even as far north as San Francisco from Mt. Umunhum. Turning toward the Pacific Ocean, from Mt. Umunhum’s heights you can see Santa Cruz and Monterey on a fogless day.

This magnificent land is now owned by the public, but there’s no public access yet. For some history and an explanation, take in this video from the Mid Peninsula Open Space Preserve:

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How many of the Silicon Valley homes for sale are listed as short sales? How many are bank owned properties? This morning I did some time pulling the numbers out for my readers so that you can see the actual real estate figures.

What’s being counted below are homes for sale, including houses, duet homes, condominiums and townhouses (or townhomes) in the various areas of Santa Clara County listed below.

As was the case a year or two ago, most of the short sale activity is taking place in the most affordable price ranges. The higher priced areas are not immune, though – but because there are fewer distressed properties to choose from, they get purchased rather quickly, so we’d see a higher percentage of them among the pending sales rather than the available listings.

Today I did a post on this subject focusing specifically on the Los Gatos real estate market in terms of short sales today vs the last couple of years (and the question of whether or not the trend is to rising numbers of short sales available). To learn more, visit the article on my Live in Los Gatos blog.

For bargain hunting buyers of high end properties, then, it’s slim pickings!  In the entry level areas, there’s much more selection but also lots of competition.  Last week I was involved with some buyers in a bidding frenzy in a terribly underpriced Cambrian short sale: it got 43 offers!  (So please remember that the list price may be completely unrelated to the sales price.)

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Silicon Valley, it helps to have the assistance of a Realtor with a pulse on the market.  Please contact me for a confidential & no-obligation meeting today!

Are real estate prices rising in Silicon Valley? In many places and certainly in the lowest price ranges, housing prices are going up. I see this especially in entry level homes for sale but also in the most affordable homes in expensive areas too.

In Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, and in the Los Gatos mountain communities it’s often a little different than the rest of the valley, so rather than generalize, let’s see for ourselves. Today I’ll use the charts from Altos Research (by permission – I have a subscription) to illustrate the pricing situation in these areas over the last 90 days among single family homes (houses rather than condos or townhouses). This post will include a series of graphs. The first chart does a great job of indicating affordability - that is, which areas/zips are more easy or difficult to afford.

Here are two snapshots of the median list price of Monte Sereno 95030, Los Gatos 95030, Los Gatos 95032, and Los Gatos mountains 95033. First, one with the 3 LG zip codes combined:

Then with them separated out by zip:

The most expensive homes in Monte Sereno appear to be the softest part of the market.

A quick word about how “mild” the changes may seem, whether up or down – this is purely a function of the graph having a very broad price range. If we separate it out to just Monte Sereno or Los Gatos alone, it looks more startling:

If we do JUST Los Gatos 95030:
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