In Silicon Valley, it seems the more expensive the neighborhood, the less likely it is that you’ll find a bargain. Saratoga CA home buyers who are working hard to get their feet in the door during this opportunity in the market (with low prices and even lower interest rates) are scrambling to find a creative way to make their budget line up with this high end enclave’s real estate prices.

One solution is to attempt to buy a distressed property in Saratoga – namely foreclosure or a bank owned (REO – real estate owned by the bank) house, condo or townhouse or a pre-foreclosure or short sale listing.

There aren’t many of them to choose from, which makes the few that do come available very prized by motivated buyers.

Below please find a list of all available distressed properties for sale in Saratoga, CA. This city has several school districts so if you are looking for one in particular, please contact me and we can chat about finding you that perfect home.

Note: some of the homes which have a “Saratoga mailing address” with a Saratoga, CA 95070 address actually belong to a neighboring city (or the county), such as Campbell. So you may see some homes in the list below which say Campbell, for instance. Want to read more about Saratoga and its neighborhoods? (I grew up there and graduated from Saratoga High many years ago…) Please also check out this article on my popehandy.com website: Saratoga Real Estate and Saratoga Homes for Sale”. Also check out the Saratoga California real estate market update post on this blog.

Check back frequently – this list is updated automatically!

How’s the market for condos and townhouses in Los Gatos and Saratoga?  This morning I ran the numbers for “area 16″ (the Los Gatos and Monte Sereno areas, which includes a tiny bit of San Jose also) and “area 17″ (the Saratoga area, also includes borderline areas of San Jose and Cupertino) in our multiple listing service.

Hottest are the distressed condominium or townhome sales – short sales and bank owned or REO properties in Los Gatos and Saratoga.  Coldest (hardest to sell) are the “regular sales”.  Buyers are going after the bargain pricing that the pre-foreclosure and foreclosure listings offer.  Have a look:

The months of inventory are longest in Saratoga, with 9 months of inventory for town houses and condos.  The ratio of pending sales to active listings is lowest there, too, a mere 11%.

The months of inventory for Los Gatos short sales is a fast paced one month and the pendings outnumber the actives four to one!

Home buyers: if you are attempting to purchase a distressed condo in either of these high-end west valley areas, be prepared to act fast and present a strong offer.  Your odds will be better with a regular sale!

Home sellers: if you are selling a non-distressed condominium or townhouse in Saratoga or Los Gatos, especially if it’s a luxury property, be prepared to make your home the best value to attract a good buyer.  As has been said elsewhere, for this segment of the real estate market “it’s a price war and a beauty contest”.  Everything has to be just right for you to enjoy a successful sale now.

The summer of 2011 will go down as one of the coolest in decades for Silicon Valley (or, as my hairdresser joked, “summer was canceled“).  Live entertainment goes on and daytime productions are more comfortable than usual so get out there and enjoy the offerings in the west valley areas of Los Gatos, Saratoga and San Jose before we finish out the warm season!

Free music in Los Gatos:

Did you know that the town of Los Gatos features three different concert series each summer?  There’s Music in the Park (Sundays), Jazz on the Plazz (Wednesdays) and Vasona Vibrations (Saturdays).  I posted every concert date/time and info on each venue on my Live in Los Gatos blog.  See the entire list of the free summer music in Los Gatos here (there are 10 still to go!).

Fiesta de Artes in Los Gatos – art and wine festival

An annual tradition in Los Gatos each summer is the Fiesta de Artes on the Civic Center Lawn (on Main Street near Los Gatos High School) and this year it’s back on Aug 13 & 14 2011. Running from 10am to 6pm both Saturday and Sunday, this is a much beloved Art & Wine Festival (the only one in Los Gatos).  Visitors will enjoy loads of musical entertainment, a variety of food and wine, and more than 150 vendors.  Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, the Fiesta de Artes has been a part of summers in Los Gatos for over 30 years.  Come on out and enjoy!

For more information, please visit http://www.lgfiesta.org/

Shakespeare in Silicon Valley

Take in some of the magic of the bard!  The Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival runs through August 6th – this year the offerings include Macbeth (we saw it opening night – well done!), Twelfth Night and Charley’s Aunt.  Check out showtimes and other info on the website at http://www.LGShakes.org  or get tickets online:
http://www.festivaltheatreensemble.org/tickets/

Another venue with Shakespeare is Shady Shakespeare, up at Sandborn Park in the hills over Saratoga.  This year’s run began just a couple of days ago and continues through early September. What’s playing?  Henry V and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Read more at http://www.shadyshakes.org.

And finally, you can view Shakespeare at Montalvo this year, as Shakespeare Santa Cruz comes over the hill to perform.  (If my memory serves me correctly, they used to do so at the Paul Masson Mountain Winery in Saratoga in the 80s and early 90s – at least I recall taking in some of Shakespeare’s plays there in my younger days!).  This series runs only in September and includes The Comedy of Errors plus a more contemporary show, Danny Scheie.  (As always with Montalvo, this is not the most affordable of the venues – but the setting is lovely.)  Learn more at http://www.Montalvoarts.org.

Looking for a weekend getaway in the San Francisco Bay Area?  Consider Los Gatos or Saratoga – great dining, shopping and entertainment year round, but never more than in summer!

Our daughter is taking some classes at West Valley College this summer and I’ve had the chance to revisit* the campus a number of times recently.  I took this photo of the Santa Cruz Mountains or the Coastal Range over Saratoga while on the WVC campus the other day – and thought it was pretty enough to share.  Hope you enjoy it!

*When I was a senior at Saratoga High School (a very long time ago – I graduated in 1977), I took a class at West Valley College in psychology. What I remember most was the segment on early childhood education and one particular line about the importance of paying enough attention to kids: “a child would rather be kicked than ignored”.  It had a profound influence on the way we raised our two kids – for the better!

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…)

Homes in Saratoga, CA: real estate market trends and statistics for houses as well as condominiums and townhouses.

The real estate market in Saratoga improved a bit last month. But, as always, it really depends on what subset of the market you’re considering. It will be much different between price points, for instance (as well as between school districts, proximity to town, views, acreage, etc.). Today we’ll review the broad trends in Saratoga 95070 to get a general feel for the conditions but this could be very different for the home you own or want to purchase because real estate is always very local.

Let’s start with the months of inventory, or the absorption rate. I ran the numbers from MLSListings.com, our mls provider, this afternoon. The numbers below reflect all houses (or duet homes) in Saratoga, CA 95070. With months of inventory, the lower the figure the “hotter” the market or the more in the seller’s favor it is. Six months is said to be balanced. For Saratoga as a whole, there are 4.17 months of inventory or MOI right now. That’s not bad. It’s a seller’s market but not strongly so. But what if we look at subsets of the market? Let’s try it by price point.

We could drill this data down by any number of factors to see what the hyper local’s market climate would be like. The mix could include sale type (distressed properties, short sales, bank owned homes vs “regular sales”), various school districts, a “walk to town” location, horse properties, homes with views, newer construction, historic homes. etc.

Schools are always a big deal in terms of market drivers. Saratoga has 3 high school districts and 4 elementary school districts, and understanding those boundaries can make buyers a little crazy. Anyway let’s tease this out just a tad by looking at the MOI for Saratoga by high school district to see what we get.

• Homes feeding to the Los Gatos – Saratoga Joint Union High School District (Saratoga High) have 4.71 months of inventory (a bit cool but still in the seller’s favor)
• Houses which belong to the Campbell Union High School District (Prospect High School) have 3.71 months of inventory
• Properties in the attendance area of the Fremont Union High School District (Cupertino school, Lynbrook High School in Saratoga) enjoy 2.5 months of inventory (a pretty good, strong seller’s market) (more…)

Finding a home to rent in Silicon Valley can be an enormous challenge.  Most Realtors don’t do rentals (since very few are offered on our MLS), so consumers looking to find rental housing are often doing it on their own.  This can be especially tough if you are relocating to the San Jose area!

Who you gonna call?

In my experience, the best places to find homes to rent, besides literally driving through neighborhoods, is online with Craigslist or via Bay Rentals.  Bay Rentals does charge a fee but they do great work and you will know you’re not getting scammed.

Below you can browse properties offered for rent in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga.  There aren’t very many of them but it’s a piece of the information puzzle.

Showing properties 1 - 3 of 3. See more city of Los Gatos real estate.
(all data current as of 5/18/2012)

1. $12,500 : 16491 S Kennedy Dr, Los Gatos
   
   5 beds, 4 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 6,033 sq ft

   Lot size: 4.28 ac
   
2. $6,000 : 1449 Elwood Drive, Los Gatos
   
   5 beds, 3 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 2,620 sq ft

   Lot size: 9,010 sqft
   
3. $25,000 : 14530 Deer Park Ct, Los Gatos
   
   4 beds, 3 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 12,500 sq ft

   Lot size: 17 sqft
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Sorry, but we couldn't find any results in the MLS that match the specified search criteria.

Showing properties 1 - 2 of 2. See more city of Saratoga real estate.
(all data current as of 5/18/2012)

1. $5,500 : 20475 Chalet Ln, Saratoga
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 2,510 sq ft

   Lot size: 11,050 sqft
   
2. $5,200 : 13744 Camino Rico, Saratoga
   
   3 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 1,752 sq ft

   Lot size: 9,945 sqft
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.