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Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES, ASP

Cambrian Gardens Neighborhood - Part of San Jose's Cambrian Area

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!

Read the rest of the post here: Introducing the Cambrian Gardens Neighborhood of San Jose

Related reading - home for sale in Cambrian Gardens neighborhood:
Beautiful Cambrian Home, Large Lot, Alta Vista School, Affordable Price!

San Jose's Cambrian Park Real Estate Market

The Cambrian Park district or area of the city of San Jose is a "west valley" community in Silicon Valley next to Los Gatos, Campbell, Willow Glen, and Blossom Valley (the latter two are also areas of San Jose). It's a suburban area with about 80,000 residents spanning primarily the 95124 and 95118 zip codes with a little slice of 95008 (Campbell area) as well. Most of the region was built out during the post World War II building boom of the 1950s through 1970s and homes are mostly "ranch style" houses.

Cambrian's popularity is due in no small part to the fact that home buyers can get a very decent home in an area with superior schools and low crime at a fairly reasonable price by local standards. Many feel that you get a lot of "bang for your buck" in Cambrian Park. You can buy there and enjoy downtown Los Gatos & downtown Campbell but pay a whole lot less than if you purchased real estate in those two areas.

How is the Cambrian Park Real Estate Market? It is outperforming San Jose as a whole right now with better numbers for "days on market" (40 in Cambrian, 51 in San Jose) but is not quite as strong with sales vs list price (99.9% in San Jose, 99.2% in Cambrian) Both areas cooled slightly from the month before when they were both over 100%.

Within Cambrian, it varies from one area & price point to the next. Right now it's a little healthier in the 95118 area (as opposed to 95124); the 95118 area is a bit more affordable & home buyers can get a little more house for their money there. Prices are close to flat - the median and average sales prices are hovering close to $600,000 in recent months and year over year. In my practice, I'm seeing that the market is a lot "hotter" in the $600k price range than in the $800k range.

For more information, please visit my Valley of Hearts Delight blog, which is a Silicon Valley real estate blog, and the Cambrian Park real estate posts.

Los Gatos Real Esate & Homes Market Update for Summer 2010

The Los Gatos real estate market for houses, duet homes, condos and townhomes is much better now compared to a year ago. Generally, it is close to balanced for the 95030 and 95032 zip codes, but within the boundaries of the town of Los Gatos (please note that it is not a city, but a town), there are many variations on how "the market is".

Depending on which part of the market you're interested in, it could be a buyer's market or a seller's market. I'll provide you a few examples and some basic data here using absorption rates or months of inventory, which explains how fast homes are being bought up. (Active inventory divided by homes sold in the last month = months of inventory)

Absorption Rate for Houses in Los Gatos

Entire town: Right now, there are 162 houses for sale in the town of Los Gatos (zips 95032 and 95030) and 37 have sold in the last month. The "months of inventory" is 4.38. (Six months is balanced, more is a buyer's market and less is a seller's market.)

95030: 63 for sale, 9 sold in the last month, so months of inventory for these houses is 7 (buyer's market).

95032: 99 for sale, 28 sold in the last month, so 3.54 months of inventory (seller's market)

Absorption Rate for Condos & Townhomes in Los Gatos


Entire town: 50 for sale, 10 sold in last month, 5 months of inventory (close to balanced but a seller's market)

95030: 6 for sale, 0 sold in last month - infinite months of inventory (deep buyer's market)

95032: 44 for sale, 10 sold in last month - 4.4 months of inventory

These numbers can be further refined by any number of variables, such as sale type (regular, short sale, bank owned), price point (luxury home, move up home, entry level home), acreage, school district, etc.

I've written many "market posts" on my Live in Los Gatos blog and have found that short sale and bank owned homes (there are almost none in Los Gatos) sell very fast (very short months of inventory), regular sales are pretty good in entry level housing to move up. Luxury homes are not selling so well, though and in fact are the hardest segment of the market to sell right now.

If you'd like more info...

A couple of days ago I did a post on my Live in Los Gatos blog and outlined the difference between these four areas and home types in & near Los Gatos:

(1) Houses in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032, Houses in Monte Sereno 95030, and Houses in the Los Gatos Mountains 95033

(2) Condominiums and townhouses in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 (no condos in Monte Sereno or in the LG Mountain areas)

Please call me if you'd like personalized, local information. I live and work in Los Gatos and am a Santa Clara Valley native and consistent top producer.

Mary Pope-Handy Realtor, CRS, ABR, e-PRO, SRES, ASP, RECS, CNHS
Co-Author: Get the Best Deal When Selling Your Home in Silicon Valley
Helping Nice Folks to Buy & Sell Homes in Silicon Valley since 1993
Sereno Group, Los Gatos 408 204-7673 (cell) Mary (at) PopeHandy.com

Please visit me online:

sites: www.PopeHandy.com and www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com

blogs: www.LiveInLosGatos.com and www.SanJoseRealEstateLosGatosHomes.com

market trends: www.PopeHandy.REReport.com

The Los Gatos Real Estate Market, Stats and Trends in June 2009

The Los Gatos real estate market is not a unified "block" so much as it is a collection of micromarkets, a conglomeration of smaller markets by price point, school district, acreage, type of housing, and many other factors.

The overview is one indicator of the health of the community's real estate generally, but it may or may not be relavent to your home's pocket, or the neighborhood into which you'd like to purchase.

I. General Trends in the Los Gatos Real Estate Market (real estate "area 16", zip codes 95030 and 95032)

Los Gatos Houses - May 2009 Statistics and Trends

Trends At a Glance May 2009 Previous Month Year-over Year
Median Price $1,012,000 $955,000 (+6.0%) $1,377,500 (-26.5%)
Average Price $1,111,280 $1,035,330 (+7.3%) $1,438,880 (-22.8%)
No. of Sales 20 25 (-20.0%) 36 (-44.4%)
Pending Properties 37 26 (+42.3%) 37 (0.0%)
Active 160 170 (-5.9%) 163 (-1.8%)
Sale vs. List Price 95.6% 95.0% (+0.5%) 97.5% (-2.0%)
Days on Market 55 54 (+0.7%) 27 (+104.8%)

The months of inventory, or absorption rate, is found by dividing the "actives" by the "solds" in the last month. So the months of inventory in May would be 160/20 = 8 months of inventory. In April it was 170/25 =6.8. So the market has become more of a buyer's market. (Six months is balanced, less is seller's market, more is buyer's market.)

To see the full details for the statistics and trends for Los Gatos single family homes (houses) please visit my online Real Estate Report.

Los Gatos Condominiums and Townhouses - May 2009 Statistics and Trends

Trends At a Glance May 2009 Previous Month Year-over Year
Median Price $587,475 $710,000 (-17.3%) $875,000 (-32.9%)
Average Price $643,738 $700,222 (-8.1%) $890,000 (-27.7%)
No. of Sales 4 9 (-55.6%) 3 (+33.3%)
Pending Properties 5 8 (-37.5%) 10 (-50.0%)
Active 49 51 (-3.9%) 46 (+6.5%)
Sale vs. List Price 97.3% 94.5% (+2.9%) 95.5% (+1.9%)
Days on Market 75 74 (+2.0%) 47 (+60.6%)

Months of inventory (absorption rate) among all condos and townhomes was 49/4 = 12.25 in May and 51/9 = 5.6 for April. Big swing - looks like March was the "hot month" for sales among condos. Some of it may be seasonal fluctuations that will only be really clear when a few more months have passed.

To see the full details for the statistics and trends for Los Gatos condos & townhomes, please visit my online Real Estate Report.

II. Looking at a smaller segment of the market

There's a way we can crunch the numbers on our mls to get some of the smaller sections of the Los Gatos real estate market. It's a bit labor intensive but I have found it useful when looking at some price points, school districts, or both to see what's happening.

Earlier today I did some of this number crunching for a client and thought I'd share it here. In Los Gatos, there are a lot of variables, as mentioned earlier. Perhaps the biggest one is the school district. We have separate districts for elementary/middle schools and high schools. To make it easiest, I'll break it down by high school district (because there are fewer of them - really just two in town). Locals tend to refer to schools that include and feed into Los Gatos High as "in the schools" or "in the district". The other schools, which are in more outlying areas of town, are in the Campbell Union High School District (CUHSD).

What I wanted to know is how the market is for the "under $1 million" homes in Los Gatos. Overall, it's a whole lot better then the rest of the town! The "months of inventory" for Los Gatos overall was 8 months in May, but we see that in the under $1,000,000 group, right now it's a brisk three months! (COE = close of escrow. COE in last 30 days means that there was a completed sale within the last 30 days.)

All of 95030, 95032 Active 33 months of inventory 3
Pending 25 active-pending ratio 1.32 to 1
COE in last 30 days 11
Los Gatos Schools Active 13 months of inventory 4.6
Pending 15 active-pending ratio .86 to 1
COE in last 30 days 3
C'bell Union HSD Active 20 months of inventory 2.5
Pending 10 active-pending ratio 2 to 1
COE in last 30 days 8

What can we tell from this?

First of all, the lowest priced homes in Los Gatos have a much better chance of selling then the higher priced homes. We are seeing this trend across Silicon Valley such that in entry level houses that are aggressively priced, there are multiple offers and overbidding.

Second, these recent closed represent sales that started a month or two ago. Among the closeds, there was a strong buying period in the outlying parts of town. Now, though, we see a stronger movement among homes "in the schools" such that now, more homes are pending then are for sale and available!

Viewing it another way, the ratio between actives and pendings indicates that a large percentage of homes in the Los Gatos School District are selling or will sell right now. With the homes that have the Campbell Union High School District, it's about half. So the "chances of selling" appear to be 50/50.

That's actually not bad - recently, the odds across town for homes selling was only about 19%, or 1 in 5.

Although I have not crunched all the numbers, I suspect that the higher the price point, the more challenging the sale.

Of course, any home can sell in any market if the basics are right: condition, location, pricing, and marketing. You can't do much about the location once you've bought. Everything else, though, can be controlled and adjustments can be made such that a home is sellable, and most of it is in the control of the homeowner.

Whether looking at houses, condos, or townhomes, it's important to get and understand the data not just for Los Gatos as a whole, or your zip code, but for your segment of the market precisely. This is equally true whether you want to buy or sell a Los Gatos home.

Please call or email me for guidance with your particular plans to sell or buy a home!

Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Update for March 2009

How's the Silicon Valley real estate market?

The market is heating up! Anecdotally, my phone is ringing off the hook and my email is jammed with people wanting to discuss home buying and home selling in the San Jose area.I have talked a few sellers out of selling - it's important to be extremely realistic right now since the odds are against selling.

What about pricing for Santa Clara County homes that do sell? Are sales improving? Yes! It's better.

Countywide, home sales increased, year-over-year, by a whopping 30.3% in February. The vast majority of sales are in the lower price ranges. One Realtor friend of mine said to me, "my sales are down, but the price point where I'm selling is REALLY down". That's just the reality of today's market. It's harder to sell a high end home than it is to sell a home under $500,000.

Prices are stabilizing. The median price for single-family, re-sale homes was flat for Santa Clara County at $450,000 compared to January. It's huge that this general number is flat and not falling!

  • for San Jose as a whole, the median list price is down by about 2% and average sales price is up about 2%
  • for Almaden Valley, it's up about 20% for both numbers
  • for Cambrian Park, it's up 2% for median and up 7% for average sales price
  • for Willow Glen, it's up about 28% for both!
  • for Los Gatos, it's negative territory: down 28% for median list price, down 8.6% for average sales price
  • for Saratoga, the numbers are badly skewed since there were NO sales the month before and in the recent month there were a few - so it's up 75% but this is a statistical abberation
  • for Campbell, the numbers are up about 27% for median and up about 8% for average sales price
  • Palo Alto is often the last to crumble and the first to rise. The market there is hopeful but mixed, with the median sales price up 1.6% and the average sales price down 5.6%.

Want more Santa Clara County cities or areas within San Jose? Or want to see data on condos? You can read the full on-line report here: http://popehandy.rereport.com/

If you'd like to read a more in-depth newsletter about current market conditions, please click here: http://rereport.com/scc/print/Mary.PopeHandySCC.pdf.