Today we’ll have a look at the most recent closed residential realty sales numbers and then also view “live charts” which are updated weekly for Los Gatos real estate.  This segment of Silicon Valley real estate can be viewed from many angles: zip code, school district, sale type, view or no view, acreage, luxury home or basic home type…. This post will serve as a brief overview only. For information on YOUR Los Gatos subdivision or neighborhood, please contact me!

February 2012 sales numbers for Los Gatos real estate are in via my Real Estate Report.  Have a look:

(1) Houses and Duet Homes

Prices are going way, way up!  And yet the market is cooler – more homes are on the market, the list price to sales price ratio shrank a little.  The rest of the west valley areas are seeing multiple offers, overbids and rising prices – and we are hearing of them here, also.  That may not be reflected in the stats for another 30 days or so.

(2) Condos and Townhouses

More skyrocketing prices!  The LG condo market has been very challenged – but now there seems to be a great turnaround. Have a look at the chart below!

Next we’ll have a quick look at the town by zip code and will use Altos Research charts and graphs (using list prices, not sold ones) to get a pulse on the market.  Disclaimers aside, here’s the broad overview by zip code – hope you find this helpful!  I will be using “live charts” here so they will always be current!

95030 stats:

90-day stats for Single Family properties in LOS GATOS, CA95030 as of May 18, 2012
Median List Price:	$1,963,038	Average List Price:	$2,754,730
Total Inventory:	45	Price per Square Foot:	$734
Average Home Size:	2,812	Median Lot Size:	33,335
Average # Beds:	3.74	Average # Baths:	3.29
Homes Absorbed:	3	Newly Listed:	3
Days on Market:	205	Average Age:	50

Continue via link for more information on Los Gatos real estate trends and statistics.

95032 residential real estate statistics:

90-day stats for Single Family properties in LOS GATOS, CA95032 as of May 18, 2012
Median List Price:	$1,335,885	Average List Price:	$1,892,544
Total Inventory:	66	Price per Square Foot:	$618
Average Home Size:	2,180	Median Lot Size:	10,517
Average # Beds:	3.83	Average # Baths:	3.12
Homes Absorbed:	7	Newly Listed:	7
Days on Market:	109	Average Age:	47

And a look at Los Gatos “in town” as a whole:

90-day stats for Single Family properties in LOS GATOS, CA as of May 18, 2012
Median List Price:	$1,301,496	Average List Price:	$1,828,065
Total Inventory:	184	Price per Square Foot:	$554
Average Home Size:	2,405	Median Lot Size:	26,674
Average # Beds:	3.67	Average # Baths:	3.01
Homes Absorbed:	13	Newly Listed:	15
Days on Market:	149	Average Age:	45

 

95033 (Los Gatos Mountains) real estate info:

90-day stats for Single Family properties in LOS GATOS, CA95033 as of May 18, 2012
Median List Price:	$803,585	Average List Price:	$1,207,157
Total Inventory:	73	Price per Square Foot:	$364
Average Home Size:	2,344	Median Lot Size:	110,877
Average # Beds:	3.49	Average # Baths:	2.75
Homes Absorbed:	4	Newly Listed:	5
Days on Market:	153	Average Age:	39

 

Monte Sereno shares many services with LG so I will share these stats also:

90-day stats for Single Family properties in MONTE SERENO, CA95030 as of May 18, 2012
Median List Price:	$2,447,077	Average List Price:	$2,648,285
Total Inventory:	18	Price per Square Foot:	$688
Average Home Size:	3,429	Median Lot Size:	37,139
Average # Beds:	4.16	Average # Baths:	3.64
Homes Absorbed:	2	Newly Listed:	2
Days on Market:	171	Average Age:	40

Los Gatos is a very complex real estate market because there are so many variables, including:

• proximity to downtown (“walk to town” always a huge plus)
• school district (“Los Gatos Schools” usually strongly preferred)
• historic nature of homes & neighborhoods
• slope and usability of the land
• views
• neighborhood amenities (cabana, nearby park, walkability)
• access to popular venues and locations (parks, shopping, schools)
• negative features such as busy roads, high voltage lines, being too close to freeways/trains, natural hazards such as earthquake faults etc.
• type of sale (distressed or regular sale)

Often homes in Los Gatos will have some positive and some negative features, and the same goes for the location.

How’s the Los Gatos real estate market? Generally speaking, it is a seller’s market overall in the 95030 and 95032 zip code areas (in town).  That said, remember that it can vary a lot between price points and school districts, let alone neighborhood, sale type (regular vs distressed).  Real estate is always local!

Today we’ll look at the LG market both with a view to the sold data we have as well as the current listings activity.  We’ll view the “in town” areas and also the mountain areas. First addressed will be the market as seen by the “sold data” – houses, then condominiums & townhouse.  (Long post but loads of info!)

Los Gatos & Los Gatos Mountain Housing Market Trends

I. Sold listings data for Los Gatos houses

Houses in Los Gatos & Los Gatos Mountains – housing trends using sold data

(1)  In town

First, housing trends “in town”, utilizing my Real Estate Report, which comes out monthly (and includes all of Santa Clara County):

Below is the summary of market trends in Los Gatos for the most current month, January 2011 (using sold data):

(2) Los Gatos Mountains

The Los Gatos Mountain communities (zip code 95033) usually have a slower market (harder to sell homes, even in “hot” years -compare 2007 for in town and in the mountains). December was improved, though, interestingly.

January’s sales/solds data:

II. Active Listings Data for Los Gatos houses for sale

Next, we’ll see how the market is faring as we make use of the Altos Research tools, which use list prices (not solds).

Houses and Duet Homes – median list price by Los Gatos zip code (including the mountains):

Right now, prices are softest in the Los Gatos Mountains (95033) and strongest in 95032, which is part “Los Gatos Schools” and part Moreland and Union Schools.

Los Gatos, 95030 list prices by quartile over last year for houses (and duet homes) – houses for sale grouped by price point:

Los Gatos, 95032 list prices by quartile for houses on the market.

It is interesting that the “high end” in 95032 seems to be recovering so well. (Some of it’s in the Los Gatos School District and some not.)

And 95033 list prices by quartile for houses:

Pricing of homes for sale dating back to 2005 – an historical perspective of list prices (single family homes/houses):

Los Gatos Condo & Townhouse Market in Los Gatos

As you can see, the Los Gatos condo market has generally had it tough since late 2007, but prior to that it was “much hotter” of a market than houses in the same areas.

Los Gatos list price by Los Gatos zip code (no condos in the mountain area of 95033):

Inventory of houses for sale in Los Gatos – sliding in all areas:

Condo inventory in Los Gatos – also decreasing, which is somewhat “annual”:

Let’s compare the Los Gatos condo/townhome market to the market for houses for sale – first the average Days on Market (DOM) of houses for sale in Los Gatos, then below that the same info but for condos.

And average DOM of condos and townhomes for sale in Los Gatos:

Much higher in 95030, the more expensive of the two areas!

What about distressed sales in Los Gatos? Are there many short sales or bank owned homes, and if so, are they hurting the realty market?

There really aren’t a lot of short sales or REOs on the market at the moment: for houses in town, 95% are “regular sales”.  For condos in town, the percentage is 63%.  In the Los Gatos Mountains 81% are regular sales.

Last year there was a cluster of short sales in the Loma Vista/El Gato area and that did disrupt market values in that area/school district/price point quite substantially.   Overall, though, it is not a major player in market value right now.

The Los Gatos real estate market appears to remain a ” buyer’s market”, but it entirely depends on which part of the Los Gatos market you’re discussing.

This post will cover:

• single family homes (99% houses, but a few duet homes)
• 95030 and 95032 zip codes
• Two high school districts:
  • Los Gatos Saratoga High School District (meaning Los Gatos High School)
  • Campbell Union High School District (meaning Westmont or Leigh High Schools)
• varying price points in all of the above

General comments:
Most of 95030 is in the Los Gatos Saratoga High School District, but there is a very, very tiny portion of it which belongs to the Campbell Union High School District.  The percentage is so small as to be statistically insignificant, but I wanted to mention it here for the sake of accuracy and I will include it below.  The numbers below are from our MLS provider, MLSListings.com, with the numbers crunched by me, Mary Pope-Handy.  While I have made every effort to be 100% accurate, I do not guarantee it (don’t sure me if there’s a typo or other error!).

Overview of the basic numbers and months of inventory for the housing market in the town of Los Gatos overall  - homes for sale, pending sales, and closed sales within the last month:

It appears to be a buyer’s market, which is true for much of the town, but not all of it.  There is variation to a phenomenal degree depending on price point, zip code, and school district.  Below we’ll look at all of it and see market conditions for each segment.
Let’s view the data by zip codes and by high school district:

The number of pendings can show where the market’s going – in many parts of the town, the number of pendings exceeds the number of recently closed homes.  In some parts of Silicon Valley, this is due to a high volume of short sales which are pending, but never actually close escrow. Here in LG, there are very few distressed properties on the market, so it does not appear to be the root cause of more pendings than closeds. Instead, the high number of pendings in some areas seem to point to an uptick of market activity.  This is really atypical for August (normally August is a very slow month for sales compared to earlier in the summer).

So, the market is heating up.  Also of note is that It has been VERY hard to sell a home that’s not “in the schools”. This is witnessed by the fact that almost nothing has closed recently.

Now let’s break it down by both price point AND by high school district in Los Gatos (95030 and 95032 zip codes merged):

This is interesting because there are two “sweet spots” in the Los Gatos housing market, both of the “in the schools”. First is the group of homes for sale in the Los Gatos School District which are listed at under $1,000,000.  As prices rise, the months of inventory grows from 3.75 to 6 to 8.25.  But then between $2 million and $3 million, there was a spurt of sales activity with 4 closings recently and only 15 available.   Both of these sweet spots have only 3.75 months of inventory right now.

At the other extreme is the reality of the market not in the Los Gatos School District. About 2/3 of the market is in these areas further from downtown, but homes with Leigh High School and Westmont High School have simply not been selling well right and closing this summer. Oddly, the market is less bad in the higher price ranges – perhaps because those owners are not as worried about schools (and are making use of private schools?  about 1/3 of all students who reside in Los Gatos attend private schools – perhaps the bulk is in 95032?)   BUT look at the pendings and you’ll find that the market is improving in this part of the town significantly.  A month from now we should see a far less dismal report for Los Gatos homes in the Campbell Union High School District.

The Los Gatos real estate market has many nuances in addition to factors such as schools and zip code.  We could dissect the market by any number of factors, from the distressed properties (which do sell for less) to those which views, acreage, historic homes, etc.  When you are thinking of buying or selling a home in Los Gatos, do not simply accept the overview of the town as necessarily relevant to your particular situation.  It is imperative to get the data on your part of the market and to understand what that data actually means.  From the study above, you can see that part of the Los Gatos real estate market is a strong seller’s market (3.25 months of inventory) and others have more than a 2 year supply of inventory (extremely deep buyer’s market).  Not understanding where in the spread your home or desired home sits could literally cost you dearly as you mis-position your home or your offer relative to the market conditions.

If you’re interested in buying or selling a Los Gatos house, townhome or condo, please call me.  If we work together to market your home or purchase a home, I will do my best to assist you in getting the clearest possible picture of the particular segment of the market that relates to you and your situation.

The Los Gatos real estate market seems to be improving as more homes are selling now than in recent months. The “absorption rate” has been declining and is now well under the 6 months that differentiates a buyers vs a sellers market. Many are thinking that the worst is behind us.

And if that is the case, now really is the “best time to buy” in Los Gatos, San Jose, Saratoga, or anywhere in Silicon Valley.

Recently I listed a great, sunny home and it will be held open this weekend (Sat 2-4, Aug 9). If you are looking to buy a house in Los Gatos, with the schools and close to shops, stores, banks and restaurants, you will want to know about this home and see it ASAP!

120 Magneson Terrace (off Magneson Loop and Los Gatos Blvd), Los Gatos, CA 95032

Offered at $1,250,000 – New Roof as of late June!!

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2.5 Bathrooms
• Living Room, Dining Room, Study (or Music Room or Library)
• Lovely Hardwood Floors Throughout (all but bathrooms)
• Appx 1800 SF
• Lot Size appx 8700 SF
• Los Gatos Schools very close by
• Home situated on a quiet cul-de-sac
• Air Conditioning & Extra Insulation
• Laundry Room
• Attached 2 Car Garage
• So close to the schools and shops that it’s “walk to”, “bike to”, “scooter to” and for driving, “less than 2 minutes to” – no matter how you get around, this home is close to schools and shops!

Virtual Tour of 120 Magneson Terrace, Los Gatos, CA 95032