Not everyone is familiar with the term “patio home” or “zero lot line” house when searching for Silicon Valley real estate.  Recently a listing agent of such a property called me for feedback and when I told her that my clients did not want a zero lot line home, she didn’t know what I was talking about. She had no idea that this term applied to her listing!

So I thought maybe this topic deserved a little more attention.

What does zero lot line mean?

With most houses, the structure is set into the lot or land such that the property boundaries are at least a few feet away on all sides – often 5 or 8 feet.  One common exception is garages in older parts of Willow Glen, Los Gatos, downtown San Jose, etc., where often these buildings were set directly against the property line on one or two sides.

When a house is right up against the property line, directly on the line, that’s referred to as a zero lot line and is usually referred to as a patio home.  To view that wall, you’d literally have to go onto your neighbor’s lot to have a look.  Although this is not terribly uncommon in dense, urban areas, it’s fairly infrequent in Silicon Valley.

Why are homes designed on zero lot line properties?  The main reason is to increase the density while providing more yard to the home owner.  Rather than having two 8′ side yards, perhaps you’ll have one much larger 16′ yard.

Interestingly, these houses do not seem to sell for less with the zero lot line – at least not that I have been able to discern. (That’s counter-intuitive….)

How can you tell if it’s a zero lot line house?

It should be disclosed in the MLS as such, but often isn’t (sometimes the listing agent doesn’t even know), so you’ll have to look carefully at the neighborhood and the property to see.  Here are some clues: (more…)

The scenic Strathmore neighborhood of Los Gatos lies close to the foothills, including both Blossom Hill and the coastal range rising behind it.  Homes here enjoy that very beautiful backdrop and access to the park and trails, but many other benefits too.

It’s a pedestrian friendly area with sidewalks and tree lined streets, so it is not uncommon to see people out enjoying a stroll, a jog, a bike ride or otherwise taking in the peaceful region.

Additionally, Strathmore residents share a community pool (or cabana) with a neighborhood swim team.   One of the biggest draws of all is that on top of these features, kids in Stratmore get to attend fabulous public schools too. The profile on this neighborhood is overwhelmingly positive!

Where is the Strathmore neighborhood?

Located in east Los Gatos, Strathmore is just off of both Blossom Hill Road and Union Avenue.  The main road through the neighborhood is Anne Way.

It’s a quick trip, less than a mile, to the on ramps at Highway 85 (and less than that to the nearest grocery store, Safeway on Union Avenue).  It’s about 2.5 miles to Vasona Lake County Park and just a little further to downtown Los Gatos.  So this is a wonderfully convenient location.

In those nearby hills, Belgatos Park and the Hines Open Space Preserve offer trails just a few blocks away.

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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…)

Close to the Los Gatos border sits one of the more affordable Cambrian neighborhoods in San Jose and the west valley generally.  It enjoys lovely views of the hills, great public schools with high API scores, a neighborhood private school to boot, and convenient access to freeways and stores.  There’s no sign, marker or gateway to the area, so many of its residents are probably unaware that the official name to it is Cambrian Gardens.

This neighborhood provides an incredible “bang for the buck” for home buyers wanting excellent schools and not wanting to pay luxury home pricing.  In many ways, it’s a “sleeper” – meaning that many people don’t know it’s there, but it’s a good deal!

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This Thanksgiving, I want to list 25 top things we have to be grateful for here in beautiful Silicon Valley.

1. Silicon Valley Weather: we enjoy a subtropical climate and usually have 300 sunny days a year and just 20″ of rain on the valley floor annually.
2. Scenic beauty in the Santa Clara Valley: our valley includes coastal foothills with lush vegetation on the west and dry chaparral hills on the east.  Get up close!  Enjoy the redwoods!  Walk the trails at Alum Rock Park!
3. Low crime in Silicon Valley: we are in one of the safest areas in the US (San Jose is often ranked #1 for safest large city, Sunnyvale often #1 for safest mid-sized city and the Almaden Valley Country Club neighborhood of San Jose was just named as one of the safest 29 communities in the nation)
4. Fabulous parks in the San Jose area: both the Santa Clara County Parks and the local city or town parks provide wonderful opportunities to enjoy all that good weather.
5. Local wineries: you don’t need to go to Sonoma or Napa Counties to enjoy world class wine tasting!  Santa Clara County has more than 2 dozen wineries right here, mostly in “south county”, downtown Los Gatos, Saratoga or in the Santa Cruz Mountains but not exclusively there. J Lohr is in central San Jose, probably just 2 miles from the airport! You can find a partial list of local wineries on the Santa Clara Valley Wines site (but I noticed several missing, such as Ridge in Cupertin0).
6. The San Jose Sharks: there’s no shortage of support for our beloved hockey team, the Sharks.  If you live in or near San Jose, you’ll find that once in awhile, shark fins turn up in odd places, such as a police car….
7. Higher eduction: we have some great community colleges but also enjoy having three fantastic universities right here in Santa Clara County:  San Jose State, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University.
8. Silicon Valley is very Kid-Friendly: Money Magazine listed San Jose as #2 on its short list of America’s 10 Best Places to Grow Up. Great activities, low crime, lots of kids and good weather all contributed to the high ranking.
9. Diversity: Silicon Valley attracts people from all over the world to live and work here.  It’s a wonderful melting pot. (more…)

Many newcomers to the San Jose & Silicon Valley areas want to buy new homes (or newer ones).  Santa Clara County, though, had a big “building boom” after World War II ranging from the 1940s through the 70s.  At the end of the building frenzy, most of the land was taken.  More importantly, most of the really good land was built up.

How old is the “average” San Jose home for sale?  Probably about 45 – 50 years old, on average.  Depending on where you’re looking, precisely, the homes could be younger or older on average. 

There are some nice communities of new and younger homes in Silicon Valley, but there aren’t a lot of them.  Most of the new home communities have houses on small lots.  Some are near high voltage power lines (homes on Taft in San Jose’s Cambrian Park area) or next to freeways (Summerhill development off Samaritan Drive in San Jose). 

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In some parts of Silicon Valley, by crossing a particular road or driving a few feet, the whole look, feel and pricing of an area can change.

Bel Estos Drive near Rosswood Drive in San Jose

This is true for Rosswood Drive at Union Avenue in Cambrian Park.  On both sides of the intersection, there are many homes of 1200 to 1400 square feet (some larger too) all built around the same time.  Both are San Jose 95124 addresses.  Both are good areas – but the 2000 and 2100 blocks are  nicer than the 1800 & 1900 blocks of Rosswood and those homes sell for more. Why? What makes one area sell for more than another?

In the case of Rosswood Drive, part of it has to do with the beautiful canopy of trees that line the two thousand block of Rosswood and the adjoining streets (Bel Escou, Bel Canto, Bel Estos, Esther, etc.). Part of it is just that the homes are a little better maintained.  Historically, Union used to divide the schools too, and that used to be part of the higher prices – but that’s not really the case now.  (A similar jump happens along Los Gatos-Almaden Road by Harwood too – same builder, Leep, but prices nudge up just a little for homes closer to Blossom Hill Road.)

How can you tell, from looking at a neighborhood, how it compares with nearby streets in the same part of town generally?  Sometimes you cannot know from looking alone (for example a flood plain, earthquake fault or school boundary won’t show), but I’ll give you some cues as to what makes areas more or less desireabile visually.

These are some things I teach my San Jose area buyers to watch out for (lower values) in terms of appearance and sounds:
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