How is the Monte Sereno real estate market? Because the city is small, with just about 3,500 residents, there are usually few homes listed for sale or selling, and with small numbers we can get seemingly volatile statistics. This article is updated monthly with new data and analysis, so scroll down to read the latest and check back regularly. Here are a few details from the latest market update:
With so few sales and listings, Monte Sereno real estate data can appear to swing quite wildly, so take it with a grain of salt.
This city appears to be in a seller’s market with severely low inventory – just 5 available homes at the end of September. Slim pickings, but equal to this time last year, and up a hair from the last month!
Closed sales have held stable with last month, and are up a hair from this time last year. With just 3 closed sales it’s still a tiny pool for data analysis. Pending sales grew to 2 by the end of the month, a hair short of this time last year.
Because there have been so few recent sales, buyers and sellers may need to also look to the nearby Los Gatos market to get an idea about market trends.
There are ALMOST no condominiums or townhomes in Monte Sereno. As of August 2026, the MLS showed just 6 sales in these two categories in total – and that’s going back to 1998! And one of those, at least, may actually be in Los Gatos. One of the major challenges for this city is to ensure that at least some housing units are deemed “affordable.” You can find the city’s housing plan here (an online pdf): http://www.montesereno.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/674
Because this is such a small city and there’s a tiny pool of data, please also have a look at the Los Gatos real estate market post on this site. Monte Sereno generally follows Los Gatos trends, so this neighbor city can give you an idea of the bigger picture.
Below is a quick market profile for the Monte Sereno real estate market. This is updated automatically weekly, so please check back often.
The Los Gatos real estate market in September was strong for single family homes, cool for condos and townhouses, and a cold market in the mountains. This is a repeat from July and August, more or less.
Per Altos Research (see below), the hottest segment of the market in Los Gatos is the 95032 area.
1 – Los Gatos real estate market statistics for the “in town” areas: multi year data
Here is some Los Gatos real estate market data that I pulled directly from the MLS. This is for the in town areas of 95032 and 95030.
Inventory of available homes for sale in Los Gatos 95030 and Los Gatos 95032
Click on any of the images below and a larger version will pop up in a new tab and be easier to read.
Inventory in September rose substantially but didn’t break any records.
The percentage of all cash sales (all cash, no loans) rose in July, but the actual number of sales, shown immediately below, shrank a little. I pulled this data from the MLS today and it’s reflective of whatever the listing agent entered into the fields for financing.
Percentage of All cash sales, month by month, in Santa Clara County (single family homes)
Next, the actual percentage of all cash sales in the county for houses and duet homes.
The average for the 11 Julys shown is 13.9%, so July 2023 with 15.7% is interesting to see. Interest rates have skyrocketed over the last 14 months, forcing home prices down in the 2nd half of 2022. It’s a little surprising that we did not see a surge of cash buyers then, but their numbers stayed in the typical range from what I’m seeing.
Now, in mid 2023, we have seen both interest rates and home prices rising – at least for the first 6 months of the year – in most of the valley.
Cash buyers are usually investors, but not always. Sometimes they are homeowners who sold their long held family home and are now downsizing and buying with the proceeds of the larger home that they just sold. We don’t get that piece of data from the MLS, but anecdotally, that’s what I’m seeing with the cash offers I’m seeing and hearing about.
What does it mean that cash buyers are an increasing percentage of the closed sales?
Rising interest rates not only don’t harm the all cash, no loans buyers, it actually helps them as it weakens their competition
How are the key housing indicators in the Almaden Valley area of San Jose? At the moment it’s said to be a hot “seller’s market” overall. But look closer and you can see that in the Almaden Valley housing market there are clear market micro-climates. Prices are better for sellers, while buyers struggle with higher prices and less homes to choose from. Recently we have seen a slight cooling, too – very welcome for Almaden home buyers.
Almaden Valley Housing Market: Inventory of Houses for Sale
Right now I have a few Almaden Valley home buyers and they have all been disappointed at the lack of inventory. What’s happening?
First, let’s see what “usually” happens in the 95120 zip code in terms of the number of houses for sale. Here’s a look at the last 10 years (all available history), care of Altos Research – you can see that it’s been rising since January 1st, but it’s a proverbial drop in the bucket:
Here you can see that inventory has regular peaks and dips. Inventory tends to rise early each year and peak in mid to late summer. After the peak is a decline through autumn and winter with the lowest point in the coldest part of the year before turning around again before spring.
Now let’s look up close at just the last 3 years. Again, inventory IS rising, so it’s betting a little easier for buyers, but still difficult compared to the last 3 years.
As usual, our inventory bottoms out in winter and then rises beginning sometime after the Super Bowl or perhaps a little later. Right now we are still in “rising inventory” mode in Almaden, so the market should be softening a little. Also, we are hearing of “buyer fatigue”, so in many cases there may be fewer offers than earlier in the spring. (more…)
Residential real estate prices in Santa Clara County rose in February 2013 by 34.5%. That’s the 5th month in a row that the median sales price has been higher than the year before by more than 20%. This is why we are saying it could be a bubble.The median price for single-family, re-sale homes is up 53% from the lowest part of the market, which happened n March 2009. Santa Clara County as a whole is still 21% below the peak which occurred in June 2007. That said, some areas area already back to peak pricing, including the hotbed areas of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto.
FEBRUARY SINGLE FAMILY HOME MARKET STATISTICS FOR SANTA CLARA COUNTY
Sales of single-family, re-sale homes were down 21.4% year-over-year (due to lack of inventory, not lack of interest by buyers). There were 585 homes sold last month in Santa Clara County. The median price for homes jumped 34.5% yea-rover- year. The median price has been higher than the year before for the past thirteen months. The sales price to list price ratio has been over 100% for the past twelve months. It was 103.8% for February 2013. That is the highest the ratio has been since April 2005.
The average price for homes was up 25.8% year-over-year. Pending home sales were down 33.5% yearover- year. That’s the fourth month in a row pending sales have been down, portending a slow first quarter in 2013.
Next let’s see the median and average home prices over time along with the number of sales. Note how sharply the number of sales is falling off while prices are rising. This is a factor of critically low inventory. (more…)
A common buyer question right now is whether or not the real estate market in Silicon Valley is overheated, if we are experiencing “another bubble”. If you visit open houses in places like Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and in many parts of the Peninsula, you may see droves of buyers and be convinced that the market is, in fact, overheated.
Silicon Valley encompasses a large area, primarily Santa Clara County and some of San Mateo County, but a few sections of neighboring counties as well. Generalizing about huge regions is tricky. Overall, though, it is a deep seller’s market throughout Silicon Valley. But there is a great deal of variation from one city or town to the next, as well as between ages of homes, quality of schools and neighborhoods, and price point. Today we will focus primarily on a couple of statistics: the ratio of sales price to list price for houses in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, and ratio of new listings to sold and closed ones of houses in these counties.
First, though, a look at the two counties combined to show the broadest common real estate trends for Silicon Valley in relation to the sales price to list price ratio and “days to sell”.
Santa Clara County and San Mateo County sale price to list price ratio and average days to sell
The chart above gives a snapshot of the Silicon Valley market, which appears to have had a peak in about October – November 2012. likely reflecting sales 45-60 days earlier, when the days to sell hit a yearlong low. Since that time, though, things appear to have calmed down.
New listings of houses for sale versus sold homes in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties
A few days ago, before getting the stats for closed sales in January 2013, I wrote about the trends for new listings of houses in relation to the closed sales in Santa Clara County in late fall 2012. What we were seeing was that homes in escrow were closing or finalizing the sales faster than new inventory was coming on the market. The closings in January, though,reflecting sales which began in December, a trend reversal, back to a more normal ratio, in both Santa Clara County and San Mateo County. December is often the softest month of the year, with few listings relative to the rest of the year and sales at lower price points. Looks like this December followed that pattern to a point. Have a look at the charts for both counties and notice the trend reversal, below.
Santa Clara County New Listings vs Sold Houses last 12 months
How is the Williams Elementary School area of San Jose’s Almaden Valley 95120 doing in terms of the real estate market? Today we’ll look at the Williams area as compared to Almaden as a whole to see. First, the basic realty trends and stats for this nice section of Silicon Valley side by side for this year only (I pulled and crunched all of this data from MLSListings.com myself tonight, “deemed reliable but not guaranteed”):
1. Comparison of the average price per square foot for all of Almaden (including the Williams area) with just the Williams area of 95120:
Status
Average $ per SF
Williams Area only
All Almaden (including Wms)
1
Active
$428
$415
2
Pending with release
$365
$372
3
Pending w/out release
$556
$439
4
Pending do not show
$355
$414
5
Sold
$418
$399
While there is some fluctuation from one status to the next, at the end of the day there’s one number that matters the most, and that’s what actually sold and closed. In the Williams area, homes have sold at an average of $418 per square foot while in Almaden generally (including this area), the price is $399 per square foot – about 5% less. This is tremendously important to understand if you are trying to purchase a home in the Williams area – homes there do, in fact, sell for more than in most parts (perhaps all parts) of the Almaden Valley.
Next, the stats for just the Williams area followed by the stats for all of 95120. (more…)
How’s the Campbell, California, real estate market? There are always micro-markets to follow, narrowing what’s viewed to neighborhoods, school districts, and price point. In general, though, it’s a healthy market for this upwardly trending Silicon Valley city with a quaint downtown, good schools and more affordability than might be expected. For houses, clearly, prices are nudging up!
Each month I have a site specifically producing the Silicon Valley real estate market trends (at least for that part of Silicon Valley which is within Santa Clara County). You can see the report for Campbell houses & duet homes here and the condominium and townhouse report here. Just below, I’ll post the basic numbers/summary, though, for those who want a quick view of the market:
(1) Single Family homes (houses/duet homes) in Campbell:
How is the real estate market in the Willow Glen area of San Jose? There are multiple ways of viewing it – via price point, school district, proximity to “downtown Willow Glen”, by numbers or percentages of distressed sales (sale type), and many more criteria. Today we’ll look at the broad market numbers for the MLS “area 10” (all of Willow Glen) and at times just the zip code for San Jose 95125, which covers the majority of the Willow Glen area. This post will only cover houses or “single family homes”, not condominiums or townhomes.
I ran the months of inventory for homes in Willow Glen (our MLS area 10) by sale type. Here’s what I found – most of the market appears to have about 4.95 months of inventory, with short sales being considerably longer. (This may have had different results had I isolated certain school areas or price points – this is a “sweeping view” of the area only.) The National Association of Realtors says that less than 6 months is a sellers market, but for our area, this is fairly “cool” and most sellers would not find the market to be all that much in their favor. (Six months is supposed to be a balanced market.)
It is unusual for there to be so little variation in the MOI, so I double checked but this appears correct. Often bank owned homes or REOs fly off the market. Odd that it’s not happening here, too.
Next, a selection of statistics and trends in the numbers from my REReport for Willow Glen (click on link for more info) – prices here reflect sold prices (median and average), not list prices:
Trends At a Glance
Apr 2011
Previous Month
Year-over Year
Median Price
$675,000
$704,500 (-4.2%)
$665,000 (+1.5%)
Average Price
$710,516
$788,240 (-9.9%)
$676,773 (+5.0%)
No. of Sales
46
56 (-17.9%)
41 (+12.2%)
Pending Properties
85
85 (0.0%)
114 (-25.4%)
Active
183
158 (+15.8%)
188 (-2.7%)
Sale vs. List Price
97.2%
96.5% (+0.8%)
98.8% (-1.6%)
Days on Market
57
71 (-19.9%)
51 (+11.4%)
Prices appear down from the prior month but up from a year ago. That’s good news for Willow Glen home owners, who hope that the worst is now behind us. Days on market are better than the previous month (but worse than a year ago) and inventory is up from last month but almost the same – just a little less – than a year ago. It’s a mixed bag. (more…)
How are the sales of condos and townhouses in the San Jose, Santa Clara County or Silicon Valley area? Just as with houses, the market is getting more active… things are picking up. The trend is for increasing sales – pending condo sales in Santa Clara County are rising each week.
Nov 1 – Nov 7 = 116 newly sold (sale pending) condominiums and townhouses Nov 8 – Nov 14 = 123 Nov 15 – Nov 21 = 129
Year over year, it’s up dramatically too. Nov 1 – 22 2009 = 234 newly pending sales and Nov 1 – 22, 2010 = 366 newly pending sales (that’s a 64% increase). That is a very huge increase!
Looking at closed sales and comparing it to two or three weeks ago, we see improvement. Here’s a graph showing the months of inventory for condominiums and townhouses in Santa Clara County, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Los Gatos (as samples). Below please find the months of inventory for all sale types (REOs, short sales and regular sales) and just short sales. Countywide and in most places, it remains much harder to sell a “short sale listing” than a regular one.
Helping nice folks to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley
Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor ABR, CIPS, CRS, SRES
Christie's International Real Estate Sereno, Los Gatos, CA 95030 408 204-7673 Mary@PopeHandy.com License# 01153805
Clair Handy, Realtor
GREEN
Christie's International Real Estate Sereno 214 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd Los Gatos, CA 95030 ClairHandy@sereno.com License# 02153633
Mary & Clair sell homes throughout Silicon Valley: Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Santa Cruz County. with a special focus on: San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park.
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Use this link to browse properties which are for sale, under contract (pending) or sold. Want to view only homes which are available now?
Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor ABR, AHWD, CIPS, CRS, SRES Christie's International Real Estate Sereno DRE License #01153805 408-204-7673 mary@popehandy.com “Helping nice folks to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley since 1993”
Clair Handy, Realtor, GREEN Christie's International Real Estate Sereno DRE License #02153633 408-721-6160 clairhandy@sereno.com “Helping nice folks to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley”
This is the Valley of Heart's Delight blog , covering Silicon Valley real estate - Santa Clara County, San Jose, Los Gatos, Cupertino, and nearby communities in the South Bay Area and lower Peninsula. Find info on neighborhoods, disclosure issues, buyer and seller tips, and housing market conditions in the west valley and most of the county.Please also see my other websites and real estate market statistics site, which are listed in the sidebar, above.
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Mary Pope-Handy, Realtor ABR, CIPS, CRS, SRES Sereno DRE License #01153805 408-204-7673 mary@popehandy.com
“Helping nice folks to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley since 1993”
How is the Monte Sereno real estate market? Because the city is small, with just about 3,500 residents, there are usually few homes listed for sale or selling, and with small numbers we can get seemingly volatile statistics. This article is updated monthly with new data and analysis, so scroll down to read the latest and check back regularly. Here are a few details from the latest market update:
The Los Gatos real estate market in September was strong for single family homes, cool for condos and townhouses, and a cold market in the mountains. This is a repeat from July and August, more or less.
Residential real estate prices in Santa Clara County rose in February 2013 by 34.5%. That’s the 5th month in a row that the median sales price has been higher than the year before by more than 20%. This is why we are saying it could be a bubble. The median price for single-family, re-sale homes is up 53% from the lowest part of the market, which happened n March 2009. Santa Clara County as a whole is still 21% below the peak which occurred in June 2007. That said, some areas area already back to peak pricing, including the hotbed areas of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto..png)
