Posts Tagged ‘Buying a Home in San Jose’
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
At a time when the inventory of homes for sale is at an 8-to-10-year low in most Silicon Valley communities, the real picture is even worse for prospective homebuyers than it first appears.
That’s because many homes that are listed for sale are so badly overpriced that a lot of buyers don’t consider them viable options. As usual, there’s no need to take my word for this: Statistics pulled directly from the Multiple Listing Service bear me out. I’ll use San Jose’s desirable Almaden Valley area as an example: (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley homes for sale, Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in San Jose, Palo Alto Real Estate, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Almaden Valley, Housing Market | No Comments »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
It’s way too early to call it a seller insurrection, but by some measures homesellers are making headway toward leveling the playing field in San Jose’s longtime buyer’s market.
The exclusive Market Action Index from Alto Research answers the questions “How’s the market?” by measuring the current rate of sale versus the amount of inventory; any value under 30 represents a buyer’s market. (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in San Jose, Rose Garden, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate, Willow Glen
Posted in Housing Market | No Comments »
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
It’s easy to see that Cambrian’s 95124 zip code has recently continued its 5-year trend toward lower annual highs – and lower annual lows.
The past three years look like virtual snapshots of each other, only with each new one moving to the bottom of the stack. There’s one other thing you should notice, as well, if you’re interested in living in the area, which includes the charming Cambrian Park neighborhood: During each of the past three years, median list prices have bounced by an average of 7 percent between early January and about late June.
Translated: If you’re planning to buy in this lovely area in 2012, you might save $35k-$40k by moving quickly, as opposed to waiting until the late-spring rush. (more…)
Tags: Buying a Home in San Jose, Cambrian, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Cambrian, Housing Market | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
As a “hyper-local” Realtor, I follow seven San Jose zip codes in five MLS areas far more closely than others; in my opinion, an agent can’t spread himself much thinner and still give quality service to his buyer-and-seller clients.
I even pay Mountain View-based Altos Research to help me break these zip codes down into four price-based quartiles and to update these statistics on a weekly basis so that my clients can stay two steps ahead of the competition. Based both on this research and on anecdotal evidence, I expect 2012 to bring both a market bottom and the beginning of a modest recovery to most of my neighborhoods. I”ll explain why in a later post; first, let’s look back on 2011 and see how these seven zips (I call them my “seven sisters”) performed price-wise, compared to each other and to San Jose as a whole.
In a nutshell: The 95126 zip – which comprises the Rose Garden, Shasta Hanchett Park and some fringe urban neighborhoods – easily outstripped its six real-estate siblings. (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in Almaden Valley, Buying a Home in San Jose, housing market, Rose Garden, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Housing Market, The Rose Garden | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
The above graph might look like the meaningless doodles of a 3-year-old to a passive viewer. It might not make much more sense to a homebuyer who doesn’t have the benefit of a seasoned translator to put it into context.
But in the right hands, it might as well be a treasure map.
Let’s say, for instance, your family is moving to Almaden Valley from another state and you have the advantage of being able to decide when to buy a home in your new city. (more…)
Tags: Almaden schools, Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in Almaden Valley, Buying a Home in San Jose, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate, San Jose Real Estate Blog
Posted in Almaden Valley, Housing Market | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Everybody who can read or watch TV knows we’re in an historic buyer’s market in residential real estate.
Which is why would-be buyers in San Jose are constantly being flabbergasted when they are outbid for the home they want by one (or five) other buyers. This isn’t supposed to happen in a buyer’s market, right? What exactly is going on here? (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in Almaden Valley, Buying a Home in San Jose, homes for sale in San Jose, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Housing Market | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
There’s no longer any doubt: The nearly 7-month long sideways move in San Jose real estate prices is over – and the long-expected breakout is to the downside.
This is no surprise. In a post last month, I pointed out that a move to the downside in median list prices had become likely, since the window for the typical fall surge in activity had passed – making it more likely that the stalemate would be broken in favor of buyers, since mid-November usually ushers in several weeks worth of lower home prices. (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in San Jose, housing market, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Housing Market | No Comments »
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Excellent public schools continue to drive homebuyers to Almaden Valley, and buyers continue to discriminate mainly between the two middle schools in deciding how much to pay for a particular home.
On sales that have closed since July 1, buyers have paid an average of $389 per square foot for homes served by Castillero Middle School, and $413 for homes served by Bret Harte Middle School. The current gap in list prices is even larger, with owners of Castillero homes asking $398 per square foot and Bret Harte owners asking $438 – a difference of about 10 percent, or $80,000 on a typical 2,000-square-foot home.
That gap hasn’t changed a lot since I broached this subject in a post about 18 months ago, though it does tend to swing quite a bit from season to season. (more…)
Tags: Almaden Valley Real Estate, Buying a Home in Almaden Valley, Buying a Home in San Jose, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate Blog
Posted in Housing Market | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
It happens every year and 2011 already is no exception: San Jose home inventory drops off a cliff during the last few months of the year, not to recover until around Super Bowl Sunday or later.
I’ll get into the reasons for this annual hibernation shortly, but this year’s pattern raises a point that should be mentioned first:
Both buyers and sellers should think twice before leaving the market this time of year for this simple reason: Any buyers and sellers who stay in the market during the holidays are likely to be highly motivated, and at the same time will be facing less competition from others of their ilk.
(more…)
Tags: Buying a Home in San Jose, housing market, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate, Timing the real estate market
Posted in Housing Market | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 18th, 2011
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” — Yogi Berra
Two of San Jose’s more desirable zip codes – 95124 and 95126 – came to a fork this year and appear to have taken divergent paths.
Median list prices in 95124, which comprises a large portion of the Cambrian area, posted a typical seasonal gain in the spring, but topped out and reversed in time to maintain its secular 3-year trend of lower highs – which means it seems headed for a new secular low come January or February. (more…)
Tags: Buying a Home in San Jose, Cambrian, Cambrian Homes for sale, housing market, San Jose housing market, San Jose Real Estate
Posted in Housing Market | No Comments »
