April 30, 2010 was the deadline for the federal  home buyer’s credit – if someone wanted to take advantage of it, he or she had to be “in contract” on residential real estate by the end of April.

Did it create a buying frenzy in Silicon Valley?

Not really. The numbers across Santa Clara County were very similar in April as they were in March. In March it was 946 closed houses & duet homes and 325 condos and townhomes. In April we saw 932 and 291. Cumulatively, it was down a little from March. And generally that’s what it seemed like, too, in the trenches: just slightly cooler.

Here’s a look at the numbers* with some historical perspective going back to 1998.  I ran these numbers myself on MLSListings.com and have made every effort for accuracy (but cannot guarantee it).  Our MLS will come out with official stats in a few more days – until then, consider this a “sneak peek” care of Mary Pope-Handy:

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Being an FHA home buyer in Silicon Valley is a challenge right now, especially if you want what everyone else wants: a nicely updated and remodeled home in a good area with no “issues”. (Issues meaning things like high voltage lines, busy roads, flood plains, or being too close to stores or spots not everyone wants to be near.)

The Problem with Condominiums and FHA

I need to start by explaining that things aren’t always the way they look.  We tend to think of condos as looking like apartments, with no yard, for example.  We think of townhomes as a two story or more home with neighbors on the sides but no one above or below.  And we think of houses as freestanding buildings with a yard around it.

That’s really how things look.  But how these different types of homes are owned may be another thing altogether.  For FHA home buyer purposes, this makes a huge difference.

Some townhouses and even some houses are not owned the way they look, but are held in condo ownership.   A good example of this is The Villas of Almaden, a beautiful &  gated community at Meridian and Coleman in San Jose’s Almaden Valley. Structurally, many of the buildings are houses – but they ar “condo ownership” and are stored under the condo label in our local MLS. What makes these buildings be condos? Practically speaking, in addition to their own space for their particular unit, the owners also own a percentage of everything else, such as the pool, grassy areas, tennis courts, private roads, etc. They also have a share of the liabilities of the condo community, too. 

If you are an FHA buyer and you want a San Jose area condo (or any home which is held in condo type ownership), you have to make sure the complex is FHA approved. We had the option of getting individual units spot checked until February 1st, but that has now been eliminated. Getting an entire complex approved takes time, perhaps 60 days, and money – and most buyers don’t want or cannot take on that kind of financial liability (and most sellers don’t want it either). Here is the link for the HUD site which will list for you the condo communities which are FHA approved.   So it is important to know if the townhouse you’re looking at is owned like a townhouse or owned like a condominium.  It can be painfully disappointing to think that a home can be bought with FHA backed financing, only to later discover that it can’t due to the type of ownership and lack of approval of the asociation.

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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.

How’s the residential real estate market in Campbell, CA?  There are always micro-markets to follow, narrowing what’s viewed to neighborhoods, school districts, and price point. But today we’ll take a brief overview of the “big picture” in Campbell’s housing market by looking at statistics related to currently listed homes among houses and condos or townhomes there. (Charts and data by Altos Research, to which I have a subscription and permission to use here.)

Median Price of condominiums and single family homes:

Inventory of houses and condos and townhouses in Campbell:

Days on the market for homes for sale in Campbell:

Overall it is a mixed bag for home sales in this Silicon Valley city: inventory is declining, but days on market are increasing and list prices are not terribly far from flat (rising for homes, falling for condos).

Will there be an optimistic market improvement with the new Obama administration? Will there be the typical surge of spring buyers after the Superbowl? Perhaps. We’ll have to keep watching. Anecdotally, I can say that I’m seeing a lot more activity in the market; the only question is whether the activity will translate into sales.

San Jose’s upscale suburb, Almaden Valley, features gorgeous hillside views, great schools, low crime, and consistently nice neighborhoods. Home prices range from a little higher than average to very expensive. How is the real estate market faring in posh Almaden Valley?

Here’s a snapshot view of list prices over the last year in Almaden of both single family houses and condos or town

It is curious to note that condo prices seemed to have an uptick while single family homes had a downtick around March first of this year. Condo and townhouse prices in Almaden appear to be slipping overall since then, while home prices have risen generally, though slipped again a little since July 1st.

Next let’s have a look at asking prices for single family homes, or houses (as opposed to condominiums or townhomes). Below, find the data broken down by quartiles.

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