by Clair Handy, Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 20, 2023 | Market Reports, Monte Sereno
How is the Monte Sereno real estate market? Because the city is small, with just about 3,500 residents, there usually are few homes listed for sale or selling, and with small numbers we can get seeming volatility. 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 swing quite wildly in the charts below so take it with a grain of salt.
- This city appears to be in a seller’s market with severely low inventory, just 8 available homes at the end of August. That’s huge growth, but still a drop in the bucket for what’s needed.
- There were just 3 closed sales and 2 pending sales, both up from this time last year.
- August of 2022 had zero closed sales, so there isn’t much to compare the market to on that front.
There are ALMOST no condominiums or townhomes in Monte Sereno. As of August 2023, 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, appears to 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.
Below is a quick market profile for the Monte Sereno real estate market. This is updated automatically weekly, so please check back often.
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Sep 13, 2023 | Los Gatos, Market Reports
As of today, Sept 13, 2023, the Los Gatos real estate market in 95030 & 95032 has gained some inventory, but pending and closed sales are both strong, and the sale to list price ratio is up. The homes that are nicely remodeled and priced aggressively are selling quickly.
Numbers for today (pulled from the MLS), going back 30 days from yesterday:
- 47 houses for sale
- 24 are contingent or sale pending
- 17 have closed in the last 30 days
- average home size 2,687 SF
- average lot size 21,467
- average days on market = 37
- average sale price $3,246,294
- median sale price $2,680,000
- average sale to list price ratio 102%
Trends at a Glance from the RE Report
The numbers below analyze data gathered during the first week of each month and cover real estate statistics from the month prior in Los Gatos 95030 & 95032 (all areas / school districts), or MLS “area 16”. See the full RE Report here.
These numbers never line up exactly with the MLS figures, but the data trends line up:
| Trends At a Glance |
Aug 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$3,200,000 (+13.2%) |
$2,828,000 |
$2,675,000 (+19.6%) |
| Average Price |
$3,386,360 (-1.0%) |
$3,422,090 |
$2,835,440 (+19.4%) |
| No. of Sales |
25 (+47.1%) |
17 |
36 (-30.6%) |
| Pending |
21 (-16.0%) |
25 |
45 (-53.3%) |
| Active |
41 (+57.7%) |
26 |
46 (-10.9%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
102.4% (+0.5%) |
101.9% |
98.4% (+4.1%) |
| Days on Market |
32 (+0.1%) |
32 |
37 (-14.8%) |
| Days of Inventory |
49 (+7.2%) |
46 |
38 (+28.3%) |
Similar charts for the Los Gatos Mountains and the condo market are further down in this article.
Los Gatos real estate market statistics: multi year data by month
Here is some Los Gatos real estate market data that I pulled directly from the MLS today.
Inventory of available homes for sale in Los Gatos 95030 and Los Gatos 95032
A quick glance at the last few years suggests that this inventory remains low by a wide margin.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | May 12, 2023 | Almaden Valley (SJ), Cambrian Park (SJ), Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Market Reports, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose (all areas), Santa Clara, Saratoga, Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, Willow Glen (SJ)
Is it a good time to sell a home in Silicon Valley? One of the best ways to get a pulse on the real estate market with an eye to selling or buying is with the months of inventory (MOI), also known as the absorption rate. This is the months of supply of housing for sale.
The months of inventory tells us how fast the current inventory of properties will be sold off if sales were to continue at the same rate with no new inventory were to come on the market.
The easiest analogy is with a bathtub full of water. If we added no more water to the tub, and the drain were opened, how much time would it take for the water to be depleted if it continued to empty at the same rate? That’s the question being answered with the absorption rate of inventory.
Or, simpler still, if you have an hourglass that you turn over, how long does it take for the sand to empty from the top (since you cannot add more sand to that end)?
How to calculate the months of inventory or MOI
The way to calculate the months of inventory is simple: find the current available inventory of homes for sale (not under contract or sale pending), then find the number of homes with that exact criteria which have closed escrow in the last 30 days. Divide the first by the second and you get the months of inventory. Or, I can just use the stats program on the MLS to generate that number, as I did today.
Earlier I pulled this data from MLSListings.com, our local MLS association (of which I am a member) and I ran the numbers for single family homes (houses and duet homes) in Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose (all areas combined), Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale. Separately, I also ran this same query for the City of San Jose by district.
The months of inventory by city or town in Santa Clara County
A balanced market for our area is 2-3 months of inventory (for most of the US it’s 4-6 months). Two months or less is a seller’s market, and one month or less is a very hot seller’s market.
Here’s a look at the months of inventory by city or town in SCC in April 2023 for single family homes. As you can see, the vast majority of the county is a strong seller’s market, with the only exception being Los Altos Hills.
Which are the hottest markets? They’re the ones with the smallest months of inventory -Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Milpitas and many more are well under the 2 month market. A few are a tad higher and in the “balanced market” area, and only one is in a deep buyer’s market.
The months of inventory by area within the City of San Jose
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 3, 2022 | Almaden Valley (SJ), Cambrian Park (SJ), Campbell, Cupertino, Foothill Areas, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Market Info, Market Reports, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Saratoga
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. But what does it cost to buy that “average home”? Tonight I did a study on the MLS of homes that have sold and closed escrow in the last 4 months with these characteristics:
- single family home (house)
- 4 bedrooms
- 2 full bathrooms
- 1800 to 2200 square feet of living space
- 6000 to 10,000 sf lot
Disclaimers aside, here are the numbers for select West Valley Communities in the West/South Bay area with good schools.
Cost to Buy 4 Bed 2 Bath Home in Popular Silicon Valley Communities
The first number is the number of sales during that time (more sales = more reliable averages). This one is not in the older charts, but with inventory as low as it has been lately this makes a huge difference. The second number is the average sales price per square foot, the third number is the average sales price, and the last number is the average days on market:
And now a look back to late winter, early spring of 2017…
What’s changed? A lot! The order has shifted some, showing where demand has increased or decreased. Most noticeably, the prices are mostly up significantly, which is most noticeable in the price per square foot. Cambrian has traveled a good deal up the ladder. Palo Alto and Los Altos were displaced by the sole Saratoga sale, and Blossom Valley of San Jose remains in it’s regular position at the bottom.
The home prices tend to run with school rankings. Previously this was by district API scores. You can check the 2013, three year average, API scores in Santa Clara County for both the districts and the individual schools online here, however that system is no longer used. So how to people judge? Most buyers use sites like GreatSchools.org when looking for a home with good schools which ranks schools on a scale of 1-10 in a few categories. (more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Apr 30, 2022 | Eichler & mid-century modern, Home Types, Houses, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, West San Jose, Willow Glen (SJ)
Mid-century modern homes, including those designed by Joseph Eichler, dot the Silicon Valley & South Bay Area real estate landscape. There are probably more than 5,000 Eichlers in Santa Clara County altogether, plus all the other homes of that genre with the similar modern style, which was influenced by the ranch and prarie styles as well as the dramatic work by Frank Lloyd Wright (open beam ceilings, nearly flat roofs, lots of exposed wood & glass windows stretching from the floor to the ceiling). Eichlers, especially, put a premium on privacy from the street but open to the outdoors otherwise.
Not every community in Santa Clara County has Eichler homes, but most have the mid-century modern style homes & neighborhoods. These homes vary from tiny, modest cottages of 1100 square feet to large & elegant houses of nearly 3,000 square feet, featuring big, central atriums or courtyards. (There are also some co-ops in the valley too.) The quality varies, as the homes were constructed by several different builders with different home buying budgets in mind. Real estate prices range from “entry level” to very expensive, depending on the location (city and schools), size of the home & lot, and condition of the property. Most of them are now about 50 years old, though some are a little younger.
Some of the West Side Silicon Valley Communities which feature Eichler and Mid-Century Modern Homes
In Los Gatos there are no Eichlers but there are a small handful of single family homes which are mid-century modern on Eastridge Drive (just off Blossom Hill Road and Hillbrook). There are a couple more at the end of Magnuson Terrace (off Magnuson Loop and Los Gatos Blvd). Additionally, there are some smaller mid-50s homes on El Gato (and adjacent portions of Escobar) off of Los Gatos-Almaden Road. Unfortunately, not all of these homes are “well kept”, though many are.
Monte Sereno is home to 16 Eichler houses on Via Sereno beginning at the intersection of Winchester Blvd with Via Sereno. These houses were built in the late 60s to early 70s.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | May 19, 2020 | Monte Sereno
Sitting at the base of El Sereno, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Monte Sereno is an upscale residential community snuggled between Los Gatos and Saratoga, California. The population is very tiny with about 4000 folks living in Monte Sereno any given time. It is composed of about one and a half square miles. This small city shares many services with the town of Los Gatos (such as schools and police). There are no businesses in Monte Sereno, only homes, the city’s offices, and the post office.
Real estate prices are high in this low-crime city, and while there are some modest homes, there are also some palatial estates featuring extreme amenities.
The geography is mostly flat to gentle hills, with much of it wooded. Redwood trees, oak trees, madrone and many others cluster together in the nooks and crannies of Monte Sereno. There are open places too, of course, with grassy fields. Along Daves Avenue, there are several streets that tie in together with a common horse stable, and it has meandering equestrian trails. Most of those homes are on half acre, level lots, with generous ranch style homes that back to the trails. This is a great neighborhood for horse lovers!
If you have a chance to visit Austin Way behind La Hacienda Restaurant and Inn, you’ll be delighted to find an old brick road, part of the heritage of Monte Sereno. And on the other side of Highway 9 along Austin Way, you’ll see a historic building recounting the city’s agricultural past in Austin Corners.
John Steinbeck once called this area home – but later decided the rural hamlet was too crowded, so moved into the Santa Cruz Mountains to regain his serenity! It is said that he wrote Of Mice and Men while living here.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Mar 25, 2020 | Almaden Valley (SJ), Blossom Valley (SJ), Cambrian Park (SJ), Cupertino, Evergreen (SJ), Foothill Areas, Golf Course Area, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Santa Teresa (SJ), Saratoga
With our 300 sunny days per year in Silicon Valley (at least most years!), golf is a sport enjoyed year round here in the San Jose area. Living near a golf course, or having a golf course view, is highly desirable as it provides scenic open space as well as convenience for avid golfers.
Silicon Valley Golf Homes, Silicon Valley Golf Properties
There are beautiful courses throughout the South Bay Area and it’s possible to find small condos with views of them at fairly affordable prices (Sunnyvale’s Sunken Gardens area is one of them). Today, though, I want to provide a list of homes for sale near golf courses in the foothill areas of Silicon Valley. Many of these will also be luxury homes. So the MLS list of these houses on the market which you can browse includes these areas:
San Jose areas including Evergreen & Silver Creek, Santa Teresa, Blossom Valley and Almaden; Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Altos.
There are golf courses to be found in other parts of Santa Clara County too (Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and more) – let me know if you are interested in these parts and I can send you a link for searching them for similar residential real estate.
Here are a available or recently sold homes near to golf clubs:
by Mary Pope-Handy | Feb 25, 2020 | Almaden Valley (SJ), Blossom Valley (SJ), Cambrian Park (SJ), Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Market Info, Market Reports, Mountain View, Neighborhoods, Palo Alto, San Jose (all areas), Saratoga, Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, Willow Glen (SJ)
It can be really challenging for people moving to Silicon Valley to get a sense of real estate prices, and perhaps more, comparing cost of from one town or district to another.
One question I get a lot is this: what does it cost to buy a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house of about 2000 square feet?
So to answer this question, let’s see what houses like this are selling for (4 bed, 2 bath, appx 2000 SF or 185 square meters) and see how the cost looks in one Santa Clara County / Silicon Valley area versus another.
Comparing Costs
Today I compared several areas and cities using this criteria: single family homes of 1800 – 2200 SF, 3-5 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms, on lot sizes of 6000 SF to 10,000 SF. Normally I would chart this over the last 2 months, or 60 days, but because of the low inventory causing the sellers market I have expanded the search to the last 3 months, or 90 days, for a better range. Because some areas have had a scarcity of inventory, I’ve added an addition to the chart titled NoS for Number of Sales within the given range.
Here’s how it shakes out in the “west valley areas” along the Highway 85 corridor, most of which are known to have good to great public schools. What areas are most affordable? One way of analyzing this is the “price per square foot” figure. Whenever I update the chart, I re-arrange the order of the cities from high to low based on the price per square foot, although there’s usually minimal movement.
Within this range, Campbell only had one sale over the last 90 days, so data for that segment may or may not be a good average. Both Los Altos and Saratoga had no sales within the last 90 days within these criteria, so their searches have been expanded to 0-180 days (or 6 months / half a year) and 0-120 days (or 4 months / a quarter year) respectively to provide data for comparison for this chart. Now that we have the data, let’s analyze it!
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Oct 21, 2019 | Finance Information, Market Info
How common are “all cash” transactions for Silicon Valley real estate right now? During the first couple of years after the downturn ended and the recovery cycle began, we had a large percentage of all cash buyers in Santa Clara County and nearby. In recent years, though, that ratio has been declining. Where are we now?
Some areas and some types of sales are more frequently all cash than others. Here are a few quick stats for the last 60 days (numbers from MLSListings, crunched by me – disclaimer on good intentions but no guarantee) for single family homes, townhouses, and condominiums (not included are multi-family homes, apartment buildings, mobile homes, farms / ranches etc.). Also, please note that this is for closed sales, not pending sales.
What percentage of sales are all cash?
- Santa Clara County: 12% all cash
- San Mateo County: 20% all cash
- Santa Cruz County: 18% all cash
Few areas in Santa Clara County
- San Jose (entire city): 10% all cash
- Los Gatos: 12% all cash
- Cupertino: 11%
- Milpitas: 4%
- Morgan Hill: 13%
- Campbell: 10%
All cash sales close escrow without a loan. In higher priced homes, some new owners will put financing on the property after close of escrow. Particularly in lower priced homes, though, these are investor buyers who will be renting out the property. This is often the case with the lower priced distressed properties in particular.
With the crazy new demands that keep coming at us from banks and new requirements being imposed on appraisers, now more than ever, cash is king. That doesn’t mean that the cash buyer will get a deep discount, but there will be a slight one in most cases and certainly preferential treatment that will create a great advantage in multiple offer situations.
Learn more about buying and selling Silicon Valley real estate with cash offers:
Cash offers: what do you need to know if buying “all cash”?
Finding Your Next Home
What’s My Silicon Valley Home Worth? Estimating the Probable Buyer’s Value (financing impacts market value)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Feb 7, 2019 | Los Gatos, Los Gatos Mountains, Market Reports, Monte Sereno
Today we’ll check in with the Los Gatos real estate market, the Monte Sereno real estate market and the Los Gatos Mountains real estate market using Altos Research graphs with a view to the Median List Price of houses for sale. These charts are updated weekly.
An overview of the Real Estate Market in the Los Gatos area by viewing the Median List Price of houses for sale
In the graph below, please find the median list price for four areas: Monte Sereno, Los Gatos 95033 (the mountains), Los Gatos 95032 and Los Gatos 95030 (“in town”).
Monte Sereno is the most expensive of these four areas and it’s having some trouble overall. How’s it faring by price quartile? Let’s view that next, then the mountains and “in town” areas of Los Gatos.
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