by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 17, 2023 | Gilroy, Market Reports
Garlic Festival – much missed!
Gilroy is a scenic area well known for wineries, farmland and fruit stands. More than anything, it’s most iconic produce is garlic, which used to be celebrated late each July with the annual Garlic Festival, which, sadly, has been discontinued.
In summer days, the scent of garlic fills the early morning air and blows north along the coastal foothills so that those of us in Silicon Valley get a healthy nose full when grabbing our morning paper off the driveway. This has been my experience since I was a small child and I’m happy that all the progress of the last 40 or 50 years hasn’t changed the smell of garlic heralding mid-summer.
If you’re exploring this city, be sure to also check out Morgan Hill and San Martin, the other South County communities, too!
Gilroy: shopping, dining, wine tasting, parks, golf, and more
A nice easy, and fairly fast trip by car will bring you to South County and to this city nestled at the base of the coastal range. It’s a wonderful day trip to explore the backyard of Silicon Valley, or better, take a whole weekend to get to know the area. There’s a nice downtown area where you can do some shopping and dining. Go out a bit and there are a number of fabulous wineries to check out. And lest we forget, Gilroy is a local epicenter of bargain shopping.
At the intersection of highways 101 and 152, the Gilroy Premium Outlet Mall is found. Go with the intention of spending money, because resistance is futile once you park your car. We have shopped there many times and often found some especially good pricing on clothes.
Many will attest that cars are found for a better price there, too.
This area is also home to a charming family amusement park (aimed at younger kids), Gilroy Gardens. Adults and children alike will appreciate the astounding topiary and twisted special trees which are unlike those you’d find anywhere else. Even if you don’t have small kids, it’s worthwhile to visit this park just to see the amazing trees at least once.
Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Coyote Valley and nearby areas make up the “south county,” which has a little slower pace of living and quite a bit more affordability in housing. The commute is long. The summers are hotter. So there are some trade-offs.
Love golf? There are several courses here: Eagle Ridge, Gilroy Golf Course, and Gavilan Golf Course are all in town.
Gilroy neighborhoods
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by Clair Handy, Mary Pope-Handy | Nov 17, 2023 | Market Reports, Morgan Hill
How is the Morgan Hill real estate market? Signals indicate it is an active seller’s market, but noticeably milder than other parts of the county. Overall the wild extremes of last spring are no more. Below are some quick points from our RE Report (link below).
- The average sale price for houses in October was $1,696,270 (-0.7% from the month before and +24.7% from a year ago)
- The median sale price for single family homes was $1,450,000 (+2.8% from the month prior and +18.4% from this time last year)
- The sales to list price ratio for homes dipped to 98.5% (-2.3% from the month before and -0.0% from last year).
- Days on market slowed month-over-month, averaging 33 days, which is about half a week slower than this time last year, but still a quick turnover.
It’s still a seller’s market with plenty of competition for the best homes.
See the Santa Clara County real estate market report (for comparison) here.
The Morgan Hill Real Estate Market
The cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy usually experience a lower demand than other parts of Santa Clara County which are either tech magnets, closer to big businesses, or a quicker commute around the Bay Area. So if most of the Silicon Valley has a sale price to list price ratio of anywhere from 105% to 110%, it’s generally lower here, making the home buying conditions calmer for weary buyers, though still a sellers market.
Now let’s get into the data.
First up, the market profile from Altos Research – this is updated weekly, so check back often! You can also view the weekly newsletter through the link below, where you can also subscribe to receive this update every week in your inbox. Prefer a particular zip code instead? You can type in your desired zip in the “Search Anywhere” line and then request that particular weekly update by email.
Altos Research weekly report for all of Morgan Hill
Altos weekly report for 95037 only
Altos weekly report for 95038 only
Please note that Altos uses information on actively listed homes for sale, not closed sale data. If you compare the days on market of the active listings with the days on market of the sold properties, they will be different.
Trends at a Glance for Single Family Homes in Morgan Hill
Below is a chart with basic info, to see more click on this link to see the Real Estate Report for Morgan Hill.
Month-over-month October active inventory and pending sales have slipped while closed sales soared. Homes sold slightly under asking on average and with longer days on market compared to last month and last year. Overall it looks like things are relatively stable for an early-autumn market. No doubt it’s still a clear seller’s market, but compared to other parts of the county it’s easier for buyers to get their foot in the door here in south county.
Looking year-over-year, the market isn’t far off from where it was in 2022 for number of sales, time on market, and the sales to list price ratio, but heightened demand is showing with only about half the available listings, and significantly higher average and median sales prices.
| Trends At a Glance |
Oct 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$1,450,000 (+2.8%) |
$1,410,000 |
$1,225,000 (+18.4%) |
| Average Price |
$1,696,270 (-0.7%) |
$1,708,420 |
$1,359,890 (+24.7%) |
| No. of Sales |
31 (+63.2%) |
19 |
33 (-6.1%) |
| Pending |
23 (-30.3%) |
33 |
16 (+43.8%) |
| Active |
32 (-11.1%) |
36 |
59 (-45.8%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
98.5% (-2.3%) |
100.9% |
98.6% (0.0%) |
| Days on Market |
33 (+93.6%) |
17 |
29 (+12.0%) |
| Days of Inventory |
31 (-43.6%) |
55 |
54 (-42.3%) |
Single Family Home Live charts from Altos Research (more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 16, 2023 | Market Reports, Most Popular Articles, Sunnyvale
The Sunnyvale real estate market, like the rest of Santa Clara County, has remained hot with a couple of cooling data points, some of which is seasonally typical.
Sunnyvale real estate market trends and stats at a glance
Here is a quick rundown of the trends at a glance for the Sunnyvale real estate market, with more in the charts below:
- The average sale price of Sunnyvale homes slipped a little (as they did the month before)
- Average prices are now up year over year by .4%. The median is up 3.6%
- Inventory rose as compared to September, but is less than normal.
- Pending sales are down slightly, monthly and annually, but the culprit is lack of inventory, not lack of buyer interest.
- The sale to list price ratio rose wildly to 113.2% in October, compared to 106.5% in September,107.0% in August and, 108.1% in July. This is far above October 2022.
PLEASE visit our ReReport page for data here, throughout Santa Clara County, and also for San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties.
(If you’re viewing this on a mobile phone, swipe horizontally to see the full chart if it goes off the screen.)
| Trends At a Glance |
Oct 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$2,500,000 (+0.1%) |
$2,497,000 |
$2,412,000 (+3.6%) |
| Average Price |
$2,345,930 (-2.2%) |
$2,398,600 |
$2,337,420 (+0.4%) |
| No. of Sales |
38 (+52.0%) |
25 |
33 (+15.2%) |
| Pending |
25 (-3.8%) |
26 |
27 (-7.4%) |
| Active |
21 (-27.6%) |
29 |
44 (-52.3%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
113.2% (+6.3%) |
106.5% |
102.0% (+10.9%) |
| Days on Market |
11 (-26.4%) |
14 |
19 (-44.7%) |
| Days of Inventory |
17 (-50.7%) |
34 |
40 (-58.6%) |
You may also want to see how Sunnyvale stacks up to other communities in Santa Clara County. If so, click to see the PDF Real Estate Report for Santa Clara County, updated monthly.
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 16, 2023 | Condos & Townhomes, Houses, Luxury Homes, Market Reports, Saratoga, Single Family Homes
Orchard and Hills in Saratoga, California
The Saratoga CA real estate market is a strengthening sellers’ market.
- the average and median home prices are up year over year – by double digits (it’s down monthly) – just like the month prior
- inventory of Saratoga houses for sale is rising, but still far lower than normal – just like September
- the sale to list price ratio is 101.3%, indicating a good seller’s market, but not as hot as September
Here’s a quick overview from the RE Report details below or please view the full data here.
How’s the Saratoga CA real estate market?
Saratoga has a diverse real estate market due to a wide range of home prices, square footage, lot sizes, school districts, and more. The luxury tier, generally $4 million and up (but in Saratoga, that’s really still just a house in an expensive zip code) normally moves slower than other price points. Saratoga’s entry level housing is usually the strongest. If the numbers swing wildly at any given month, it could be that more or fewer homes in a particular school district and pricing tier.
To really understand the Saratoga CA real estate market, you’ll need to get hyper local data for that home’s pricing tier, school district, and any other impactful data points.
Trends at a Glance for the Saratoga CA Real Estate Market
Data below for the Saratoga CA real estate market is from the ReReport.
Prices are up annually but down monthly – however, that is with just 13 sales, which may be too few to really indicate what’s happening. The sale to list price ratio and the short days on market tell us that it is a hot market.
| Trends At a Glance |
Oct 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$3,944,000 (-8.3%) |
$4,300,000 |
$3,125,000 (+26.2%) |
| Average Price |
$4,351,650 (-4.2%) |
$4,542,270 |
$3,272,330 (+33.0%) |
| No. of Sales |
13 (+18.2%) |
11 |
12 (+8.3%) |
| Pending |
22 (+37.5%) |
16 |
8 (+175.0%) |
| Active |
26 (+18.2%) |
22 |
25 (+4.0%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
101.3% (-4.4%) |
106.0% |
96.6% (+4.9%) |
| Days on Market |
38 (+162.8%) |
15 |
58 (-33.8%) |
| Days of Inventory |
60 (+3.4%) |
58 |
63 (-4.0%) |
And the month before:
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 14, 2023 | Cupertino, Market Reports, Most Popular Articles
How’s the Cupertino real estate market?
Willow Glen is a hot market. The first half of the year prices rose rapidly, and now they are rising less steeply, but prices are up quite a lot from a year earlier.
Here are the most recent real estate statistics, via our Cupertino Real Estate Report. The market is HOT!
Cupertino Real Estate market – Closed Sales and Trends at a Glance
(If you’re viewing the chart below on a mobile device, please swipe horizontally to see all columns.)
The market cooled from white hot to red hot – prices are up monthly and annually.
| Trends At a Glance |
Oct 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$3,227,500 (-0.7%) |
$3,250,000 |
$3,008,000 (+7.3%) |
| Average Price |
$3,380,970 (+3.4%) |
$3,269,390 |
$2,761,000 (+22.5%) |
| No. of Sales |
14 (-22.2%) |
18 |
13 (+7.7%) |
| Pending |
14 (0.0%) |
14 |
13 (+7.7%) |
| Active |
17 (-5.6%) |
18 |
22 (-22.7%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
106.9% (-4.4%) |
111.8% |
105.1% (+1.7%) |
| Days on Market |
21 (+137.1%) |
9 |
18 (+18.6%) |
| Days of Inventory |
36 (+25.6%) |
29 |
51 (-28.2%) |
Cupertino real estate market via the Altos Research weekly charts (they use LIST prices, not sale prices):
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 13, 2023 | Cambrian Park (SJ), Market Reports, Most Popular Articles
The Cambrian Park real estate market closed out the summer very, very hot. Autumn, so far, has been warm to hot – just not AS hot as summer had been.
For those new to the area, Cambrian is most of the 95124 zip code (south of Foxworthy) and most of 95118 (west of Almaden Expressway). It borders Los Gatos, Campbell, Willow Glen, and Blossom Valley.
The Cambrian Park Real Estate Market
The chart below is from the RE Report. Home prices are up year over year but down monthly by 2.2%. The sale to list price ratio cooled a little. It’s a strong seller’s market generally in Cambrian.
Trends at a Glance
| Trends At a Glance |
Oct 2023 |
Previous Month |
Year-over-Year |
| Median Price |
$1,727,500 (-5.0%) |
$1,819,000 |
$1,630,000 (+6.0%) |
| Average Price |
$1,816,330 (-2.2%) |
$1,857,110 |
$1,658,820 (+9.5%) |
| No. of Sales |
36 (+28.6%) |
28 |
47 (-23.4%) |
| Pending |
32 (-22.0%) |
41 |
31 (+3.2%) |
| Active |
25 (+8.7%) |
23 |
31 (-19.4%) |
| Sale vs. List Price |
105.4% (-1.4%) |
106.9% |
101.0% (+4.4%) |
| Days on Market |
21 (+52.9%) |
14 |
24 (-13.0%) |
| Days of Inventory |
21 (-12.5%) |
24 |
20 (+5.3%) |
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 9, 2023 | Market Reports, Santa Clara County (all)
The Santa Clara County real estate market is very similar to last month: inventory remains tight, home prices are rising year over year, interest rates came down a little last week, most listings are “have to sell” situations (more sales after a death than usual), and the number of sales is way down.
It’s hard for buyers to get into a good home and it is pretty easy to sell, but most sellers are staying put as they have low interest rate mortgages and don’t want to change that. Except for interest rates moderating slightly, this has been our market condition in recent months. Homes are still selling, but far fewer than normal. We are hoping that interest rates come down next year. That would help a ton.
Today, in addition to sharing the Silicon Valley real estate statistics, we’ll also touch on something that’s been making the news a lot in the last week or so: real estate lawsuits.
Here’s the RE Report summary table. It’s an excellent summary of our Silicon Valley housing market.
PLEASE NOTE: to view any of the data tables / images below in a larger version, just click on them and you will be taken to our blog post, where the images are larger (except for the first one). Still too small? Click on them in the article and a larger still version will pop up.
Real estate lawsuits
Have you heard about the lawsuits against NAR (the National Association of Realtors) and several brokerages? Recent court decisions are beginning to change the way we work as an industry across the nation. In our local market, one of the biggest shifts we expect to see is a more widespread use of a written buyer-agent agreement as opposed to a verbal commitment and a handshake. This written agreement will also shift the responsibility of payment for the buyer’s agent to the buyer, though we do not anticipate a major change in how commission payments are made in the immediate future, as home sellers can continue to cover that cost. And these changes are already underway.
Clair and I have been studying and preparing, attending legal updates and seminars with our brokerage to adapt to these new best practices as this unfolds. We know that you probably have a lot of questions about how this will impact the Silicon Valley real estate market. So do we! In the future expect to see a blog post on this. Right now we are still gathering information so we can provide accurate insight for our readers. For our active clients, feel free to reach out to us at any time, we’d be happy to discuss this with you in person, in a video call, or over the phone.
Santa Clara County real estate market statistics
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by Mary Pope-Handy | May 1, 2020 | Neighborhoods, Neighborhoods in Saratoga, Saratoga
The exquisite Saratoga Oaks neighborhood is nestled between downtown Saratoga and the beautiful coastal foothills, close to the famed Hakone Gardens. With both pools and tennis courts and a location just a block or so from tony Saratoga Village (click to see slide show), it is resort living in Silicon Valley at its finest. But this is not just a place for retirees who want to downsize, though they are also drawn here – families with kids also move to Saratoga Oaks to make use of the top rated schools.
Which public schools serve this neighborhood?
Saratoga Oaks is within the very highly regarded Saratoga Union School District. Although many other school districts in Santa Clara County assign children in homes to particular schools, Saratoga does not – it is an “open” school district. If there’s space and if the home is within the district, you may be able to chose which of the excellent Saratoga schools you wish for your student to attend. The nearest public school is Saratoga Elementary on Oak Street, but you may find enrollment instead at Foothill Elementary or Argonaut. The higher level schools are Redwood Middle School and Saratoga High School. California has transitioned to new school assessment, away from the old 2010 API scores, but you can check the new Saratoga Union School District “Report Cards” here. Additionally, there are two excellent private elementary schools nearby: Sacred Heart (Catholic) and St. Andrew’s (Episcopalian).
Where is Saratoga Oaks?
The Saratoga Oaks community is within the city of Saratoga, California, and is a part of Silicon Valley and what’s locally referred to as “the south bay” area. It can be reached either via Springer Avenue, off of 4th Street in Saratoga or from Springer off of Big Basin Way (aka Hwy 9 or Congress Springs Road). This townhouse complex is literally where the town meets the hills – so it is not at all uncommon to find deer in the open spaces! Click on the map image to go to the live, interactive Google map. (more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jan 12, 2020 | Buying Tips, Working in real estate
In many parts of the U.S., a buyer broker agreement is normally used between home buyers and their real estate agents, much like a listing agreement is used between sellers and theirs. It’s not so common in Silicon Valley, though. Often home buyers are a little spooked at the prospect of signing a contract for buyer representation & compensation.
My Realtor colleague and blogosphere friend, Elizabeth Weintraub, has a great article on this topic on About.com, Buyer’s Broker Agreements & Buyer’s Broker Contracts, in which she explains the various types of buyer contracts and agreements which are commonly found around the country. The one which is used the most, if one is used at all, is the “exclusive representation” (which again is similar to a listing agreement, which is also usually an “exclusive representation agreement”).
Why use a buyer broker agreement?
Why would anyone want to use a buyer contract? Whether you’re the consumer or the agent, the answer is pretty much the same: to have options. In my real estate practice, I do not request nor require a buyer contract as long as my buyer client is willing to purchase something from the selection available on the multiple listing service (MLS). If that isn’t enough, though, then we chat about the buyer’s options.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Apr 14, 2019 | Selling Tips
Selling your Silicon Valley home this year? At the top of your to do list should be decluttering and fixing the home and yard. These basics are extremely important because they give home buyers confidence, and confident buyers write stronger offers with higher prices. When you do the work upfront, your future home buyers will be far more comfortable with an As Is sale, and you are more likely to get top dollar for your home.
Starting point: a list of what needs to be fixed
The first and most important thing if you’ll be Selling your Silicon Valley home is to go through your property – both interior and exterior – and get everything into good working order. This may seem intuitively obvious but it doesn’t always happen. Once I assisted some buyers with a home in which one of the bathrooms was not fully usable. The owners just used other bathrooms but to the buyers it raised an enormous red flag and a ton of questions: when did it break? why didn’t you fix it? what’s the cost? are the sellers just hiding something? This is a typical reaction when there’s deferred maintenance, particularly in a kitchen or bathroom. It happens in condos, townhouses, single family homes and even luxury homes. But if you’re selling, don’t do it: get your repairs done first and foremost.
Exterior of the home
- Grab a clipboard or notepad, a paper and pen and walk around the exterior of your home. Look for things which don’t work, need cleaning or otherwise need repair.
- Check the paint, windows, screens, downspouts, spigots, doorbell, front door, mailbox, door hardware etc. (Wood on the outside of the home tends to need painting every 5 years, by the way.)
- Is the house dirty or dusty? Consider power washing (close to when your home will go on the market).
- Are there stucco cracks or wood damage to the outside of the home (siding or under the eaves)?
- How are the sidewalk, the walkways, patio, or deck? Look for trip hazards.
- Exterior lighting – do the lights come on as expected?
- Sprinklers – are they working as needed?
- Are your downspouts extended so that water flows away from your home when it rains?
- Are your gutters cleaned out?
- Lawn and landscaping: is there a need for re-seeding, planting annuals? Are the trees and bushes in need of a trim? You do not want trees hanging over the roof for many reasons, and bushes and other vegetation should not obscure windows as you want as much natural light to flow into the home as possible.
Interior of the home
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