Yesterday we looked at the types of home sales around Silicon Valley by price point.  Not terribly surprising, most of the short sales and bank owned homes were in the lowest price ranges.  Today we’ll look at this type of information not by pricing tier but instead by geography – in other words, by either town, city or district of San Jose (area).  This post will not cover every area but will be a sampling a few communities, mostly on the west side of the valley (since that’s primarily where I work).

By way of reminder, the small image to the left reflects Santa Clara County’s houses for sale as a whole – all areas and all price points. (You can see the full sized image by clicking on it.) The green area represents “regular home sales” and the brick red and light orange signify distressed  properties listed on the MLS for sale (red is short sales and orange is bank owned or REOs). Next let’s see a few regions within the county to see how things are faring geographically.

1. Almaden Valley area of San Jose – homes listed for sale by type – very few distressed properties on the market!

Almaden is a lovely southwest San Jose suburban community (zip code 95120) that grew up initially with the cinnabar or mercury mining activity.  Today it’s an upscale area of more expensive homes than most of the county, it enjoys really good schools and scenic views of the coastal range as well as the Santa Teresa Foothills.  Housing here is costly but residents love the quality of life. Since the cost of homes for sale here is high, it’s not super surprising, after seeing yesterday’s post, that there are very few distressed homes on the market here. Next we’ll check the other extreme…. (more…)

After enjoying a visit with some friends at the Orchard Valley Coffee Roasting shop in Campbell, Jim and I headed home on this lovely, warm evening at around 6:30pm. We happened to drive past a place that made me chuckle so I got a couple of pics (he was driving). I would not have thought of “skull and crossbones” as a theme for a house, but here you have it. And it’s not even Halloween and this isn’t even my haunted real estate blog.

Often I have clients who are interested in purchasing a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home in a good school district in Silicon Valley, particularly in the South Bay and West Valley areas.    Tonight I did a study on the MLS of homes that have sold and closed escrow in the last 3 – 6 months with these characteristics:

• single family home (house)
• 4 bedrooms
• 2 bathrooms
• 1800 to 2200 square feet of living space
• 6000 to 10,000 sf lot

Disclaimers aside, here are the numbers as I shook them out for select West Valley Communities in the San Jose area with good schools (the first number is the average sales price per square foot, the second number is the average sales price):

The home prices tend to run with the school district API scores.  You can check the 2010 API scores in Santa Clara County for both the districts and the individual schools online here.         (more…)

Veteran’s Day is this Thursday, November 11, 2010.  Here are some of the local happenings to celebrate it in Silicon Valley:

9 am Downtown Campbell will have a Veteran’s Day Program at the Orchard City Green.

11 am, 12 noon The United Veterans Council of Santa Clara County is hosting its annual Veterans Day Parade in downtown San Jose on Thursday, November 11th, 2010.  The parade is at noon and the opening ceremony begins at 11am at Plaza de Ceasar Chavez. This will be the 92nd annual Veterans Parade here!

11 am Veteran’s Day Ceremony at the Veteran’s Memorial at Cupertino’s Memorial Park

Bargain hunting home buyers have a lot to be grateful for: interest rates are low and house prices are low in Silicon Valley generally and Campbell too.  Oftentimes these are distressed properties which are either short sale listings or bank owned homes. So there will be issues with purchasing these houses, but even so, they are usually sold at a significant discount for the trouble. It’s a great time to buy Campbell real estate!

Least costly houses, townhouses and condominiums in Campbell, CA

Below please find the most affordable homes in all categories of housing & residential real estate!  These are properties currently listed as available on our local MLS.

Lower Cost Campbell Houses for Sale

Specifically looking to buy a house in Campbell? Here are homes which are most affordably priced:

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

How is the Campbell condo and townhouse market?  The answer may well depend on both what part of that market we’re discussing and which data we’re focusing on.

The Campbell Condo Real Estate Market Summaries for Summer 2010

The summaries here are from my Real Estate Report.  Get the most current, detailed report at www.popehandy.ReReport.com.

Campbell condominium & townhouse sales in September 2010

The condo market in Campbell, California has been strengthening.  September 2010 was a good month!

August 2010 Condo Sales in Campbell CA

August was slow across Silicon Valley – real estate sales lagged (more than the “seasonal average”)
(more…)

You’ve heard that prices are a little high in Silicon Valley.  Even with the recession and the “rollback”, this is still true.  So what can you buy for a million dollars here?

In Santa Clara County (which is most of “Silicon Valley”), in the last 3 months there were about 50 -75 homes that sold very close to $1 million.  They were spread throughout the county.  Here’s a snapshot of what a million dollar home in Silicon Valley looks like.

Depending on where you live, you can get more or less for your money.  In some areas, a million dollar price tag will get you a townhouse rather than a house, too. In some areas, it’s a luxury home, but in many it’s simply a nice, middle-class home.