Recently I was showing a buyer of mine a San Jose house which was vacant.  Often a home is occupied and the garage, in particular, is full of stuff so it’s hard to see the walls very well.  In this case, though, we could easily view where the walls in the garage meet the floor.  And this is what we saw:

Only a qualified, licensed Pest Control Operator can diagnose termites and pests, but this looks a lot like subterranean termite tubes to me.  When you see “mud tubes” such as this, it is time to call a good termite and pest control company for diagnosis and treatment.

Why do termite & pest companies insist that the garage be largely free of personal possessions when they inspect? It is so that they don’t miss things exactly like this. 

When buying or selling a home, understand that the inspectors arent being difficult if they won’t warrantee a garage as free of pests when they cannot view the walls or floor.  Bookshelves and personal storage can obstruct the view of things like this.  If you’re selling, be ready for the inspectors - have all your items away from the walls or even better, entirely out of the garage. If they have to call a packed garage as an “unknown further inspection”, it’s likely to cause you problems later, when there’s a time pressure.  Best to know upfront, for everyone’s sake, what the score is.

San Jose’s Cambrian Park neigbhorhood offers a variety of home types, sizes, and price ranges, from small condos to large houses on big lots.  Below, please find virtually all MLS listed properties currently for sale in the Cambrian Park Area. The map and info is updated automatically, so please check back often! (You can narrow your search by selecting only certain home types, sizes, etc. And if you like your search, you can “save it” too.)

To browse homes by price:

Cambrian Park - San Jose (zip codes 95124, 95118)
Cambrian Park Homes Under $1,000,000
Cambrian Park Homes $1,000,000 and up

For more information on Cambrian Park neighborhoods, please click on the following link for all Cambrian area posts on this blogsite.

Although Ashland, Oregon, is the west coast Shakespeare magnet, there are many places in the San Francisco Bay Area that offer top notch performances of William Shakespeare’s most beloved plays.  If you’ve never enjoyed these series, do check them out!

Los Gatos: The Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival (happening now, mid July - early August, featuring both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Merry Wives of Windsor).

Santa Cruz: Shakespeare Santa Cruz (July 31 - Aug 30, current offerings are Julius Caesar and Midsummer Night’s Dream)

San Francisco: San Francisco Shakespeare Festival - midnight Shakespeare, a special effort of professional theater instructors and inner city, “at risk” youth to bring Shakespeare to school kids and their communities. Ongoing - check the site for their schedule.

San Jose: San Jose Youth Shakespeare presents Julius Caesar in mid-August.

Berkeley: California Shakespeare Theater

Already passed, but make a note for next year:

Menlo Park: Annual Midpeninsula Shakespeare Festival (June)

Locals to the San Jose area (Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County) know, and newcomers often do not, that we have mico-climates here. Our weather is mild everywhere, of course - we enjoy a “sub tropical climate” where citrus grows and palm trees thrive - but it varies a lot nonetheless.

What kind of variation exists in Santa Clara County’s weather?

Consider that our terrain is shaped somewhat like a funnel with the San Francisco Bay

View Larger Map

Together with our funnel shaped valley, the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay are the major influencers on our climate. The Santa Cruz Mountains are warmer and wetter than the eastern foothills. The Pacific Ocean brings in the rain, fog and winds pulling storms in from the ocean to the valley. Much of the weather stops at or near the coastal mountains, though, and the influence lessens as you go east such that the east foothills are very, very different from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The areas close to the bay get more breezes than those sheltered by smaller valleys or nooks.

Here are a few basic notes for newcomers:
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In Santa Clara County, as in much of California, we have adobe clay soil and it’s expansive.  That is, when the dirt gets wet, it expands, and when it dries out, it contracts. Hence it’s sometimes referred to as “shrink-swell” soils.  (Every state in the union has areas with this problem - a color-coded map on geology.com shows areas with more and less expansive soils.)

Why is this an issue for homeowners and would-be homeowners in Silicon Valley? 

The trouble is that the expanding and contracting soil is far stronger than concrete and the foundations upon which a home sits. A well written and illustrated six page paper can be found online explaining the mechanics involved for those interested in more detail on the hows and whys of expansive soils. (It states that the ground can life as much as 5,500 pounds per square inch!)

What I’d like to focus on here is mitigating the risks and preventing the problems associated with expansive soils. 

The trouble is not so much that the soil is wet or dry.  The problem is in the back and forth, the movement. When the soil is kept at an even amount of moisture, it does not expand and contract.

Obviously, rain is seasonal and we cannot control all moisture on or near the house. We can, though, work to move water away from the house and away from the foundation.

Winter storms can bring an enormous amount of water onto a home’s roof, and when it channels down gutters and downspouts, there can be a large amount of water exiting in just a few places.  Where does that water go?

In 95% of the homes I see in San Jose, Los Gatos and Saratoga, the water simply dumps out at the base of the downspout - right up against the home.  This is typical, but is unwise, as it causes the soils to become excessively damp in one spot.

Ideally, you want to move the water away from the house and foundation, at least by 6 feet or so.   Solutions can be expensive (underground and run all the way to the street) or can be very inexpensive (a plastic extender added to the end of the extra long downspout) as in the photo below.

Leaks that are untended can wreck havoc on your foundation. This photo below displays a foundation crack that includes efflorescence (the white powdery stuff) and rusty discoloration, which is most likely a bad sign for the rebar inside the foundation. The source of the trouble? Probably a combination of a leaky hose bib and water that got under the house from a kitchen faucet leak or from grading issues and heavy rains.

Another main culprit is grading. Too often, a walk around the house in question reveals that the land is sloped toward the house rather than away from it.  When it rains, or when sprinklers run, the water in the yard will come careening toward the house - exactly what you do not want to happen.

Sometimes, it’s inevitable, as in the case with hillside construction. What to do? Specialists find a way to grade the soil closest to the home away from it and to intercept the hill-driven water before it gets close to the home.  Imagine making a tiny valley between the home and the hill, and the small culvert catching the water so it can be diverted. That’s essentially how it works.

High water table areas will require the help of specialists too, as these can cause water to bubble up under or near the home and again create havoc on the home’s stability.

If you’re a current homeowner or home seller in the Bay Area, have a walk around your property and see what’s happening with your downspouts.  In some (few) cases, the downspout may empty onto concrete that is sloped away from the structure, and it may be OK as is.  In many cases, though, that downspout just termitates at the base of the home and empties into soil or landscaping that’s waiting to absorb the moisture and expand.  A home inspector will “call” this.  Are your floors inside out of level? Are the hardwood floors cupped? These may be the result of water not being diverted away from the home - you’ll want to address this immediately, before it worsens.  Having this work done will also give homebuyers confidence that your property has been well maintained when and if you do go to sell it.

If you’re a current homebuyer in the area, watch for this detail. Does the home have downspouts and gutters? If not, you’ll want to add them and then the extenders. If the downspouts are like most I’ve seen and stop at the base of the home, pay particular attention to the concrete nearby, any exposed foundation (watching for cracks), floors inside (looking for “out of level” and if hardwood, any cupping).  Hopefully the floors are level and undamaged.  If undulating, though, you may need to speak with a structural engineer about solutions.

A newer “mixed use” neighborhood in San Jose, Santana Row is popular with people of all ages and interests.  It is not just a “shopping center”, but is really a community, one which offers a wide variety of dining, shopping and entertainment, suitable for all kinds of budgets too. Best of all, it’s right in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Dining at Santana Row varies from very formal and expensive to casual and snack-like, and the type of food available ranges widely too.  A fairly new addition is Pinkberry, which seems to be growing quickly in popularity.  There are about thirty cafes, bistros and restaurants and to date I’ve probably visited about one-third of them - all experiences positive.

Entertainment at SR goes beyond window shopping and includes live music and, of course, films at the movie theater. Many chose to simply peoplewatch, take in a good book or catch a game of chess with a friend while enjoying a beverage.  A Farmer’s Market features produce, flowers and other goods each week (and there’s a Safeway just a block or two away also) and is a good excuse to browse the offerings. Or maybe splurge a little and enjoy some pampering at a spa or salon: Santana Row’s got that, too.

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The tide is turning for Silicon Valley real estate: fewer listings are coming onto the market and more homes are being purchased by homebuyers anxious to get into a house before interest rates rise and the $8000 first time homebuyer’s credit expires.

The shift is most visible in areas with the most affordability, but even is more upscale, higher priced areas, it’s still a noticeable change.

Today I’ll share with you a series of graphs, by area, of single family homes in terms of new listings, current inventory, and pending sales (sales under contract).  These were created using our mls system (information deemed reliable but not guaranteed).

Here’s the “key” (since if I put it alongside each image it would not fit without making all of it unreadable):

Description of each graph is ABOVE the image.

Almaden Valley (95120 area of San Jose) - this is a more expensive part of Santa Clara County, but the market improvement is very clear. Cool market.

Blossom Valley (95123 and 95136 zip codes, an area of San Jose) - this is a very affordable part of Silicon Valley and has taken a huge hit on the “price rollback”.  But it’s getting better now - note the rise in sales, low number of new homes coming on the market and overall lessening of inventory. Number of pendings is almost the same as the total inventory. Hot market.

Cambrian Park (95124 & 95118 area of San Jose) - trends among listings, inventory, and sales for single family homes. The trend of less inventory and more sales is quite evident. Warm market overall - very hot under $500,000, cool in higher price ranges. (But hot only if prices are deeply reduced.)

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