Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog - 1SiliconValley.com

The California Department of Education (CDE) has released the updated 2006 Academic Performance Index (API) scores for California schools, including data for San Mateo County and Santa Clara County.  The API is a statewide benchmark based on standardized achievement tests which is primarily used to rank schools relative to one another and relative to schools with similar demographics.  Here's an example of what the statistics look like.

We'll take a look at how school rankings and Silicon Valley real estate prices are related, but first let's look at how to read the information. 

Number of Students.  In the first column, you'll find the number of students whose results were included from that school.  It's pretty close to the total number of students, less any excluded students.  The rules for excluding students are listed in the API Base Documentation Information Guide found on the CDE API page.  Surprisingly, the number of students has little to do with how well the school did in its API scores (almost, see epilogue).

Base API, Statewide Rank, Similar Schools Rank.  The Base API score is like an SAT score except it's from 200 to 1000.  Higher is better.  To make comparing schools easier, the CDE provides a statewide rank from 1 to 10 (ten is best) and a similar schools rank that rates schools (again from 1 to 10, ten being best) that have similar demographics and characteristics.  Apples-to-apples in a way.

Growth Target, API Target.  The growth target is the number of points California wants the school to improve in the next year.  That added with the current base API score equals the API target.  The CDE doesn't set a target for schools above the current statewide performance target of 800.

Silicon Valley School District Scores

I've assembled information from the CDE site and the Palo Alto Daily News to provide a table of school district API averages for Silicon Valley and Bay Area elementary and middle schools.

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Mar.31.2007 [ Filed under: Schools, Home Buyers, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, San Mateo, Foster City, Market Updates ] 3 Comments »

Mike Rohde, general manager of Cupertino Square (formerly the Vallco Fashion Park) reports that the AMC movie theater is set to open April 27.

Mar.28.2007 [ Filed under: Cupertino Square ] Comment Here »

As we stood under the cathedral ceiling looking over the stone-tiled patio, we could hear the owner and his son playing their XBox in one of the bedrooms.  It was penned off from the rest of the house so that Cujo wouldn't get loose. 

I thought the top-level townhome was in pristine condition considering they had a Cujo, until I peered into the room and saw a tiny 10-pound pug sitting attentively in front of the television!

There were network connections wired into every room, and this being Silicon Valley, we asked the owner if it was standard CAT-5 or CAT-5e.  The gentleman, in his decidedly French accent, said with a bit of sheepishness, "You know, I'm not sure."  (He was a little redfaced because we'd talked about his job at Cisco.) 

So I asked whether he had a wireless network and his face lit up.  He hopped over to the storage closet in the entryway and eagerly showed off the router, neatly and carefully wired into the connectivity panel.  He didn't check for CAT-5e because he didn't need it.

The network drops were a "nice-to-have" for my client who does a lot with multimedia.  They weren't a dealmaker (and as he discovered not a dealbreaker) but given that this was the first home he'd seen as a potential buyer, he was eager to get some experience looking at houses under his belt so that he could really experience firsthand what his requirements feel like.

In the back of people's minds, most people start off with a list of requirements that I rank order informally using the "MoSCoW" method:

• Must: What they know they want
• Should: What they think they want
• Could: What they don't have strong feelings about
• Won't: What they don't want

For any number of reasons, what people say they want doesn't always line up with what they really want in their minds and hearts. 

A lot of times that's because of the difference between theory and application: being able to actually drive the commute or experience how many flights of stairs there are gives people a clearer picture of "could" vs. "won't".

The tricky part is separating the borderline "must-haves" from the "shoulds."  And with my client in the early stages of his home search, we needed to setup a stable foundation so that we'd learn those differences from every property he would see on the rest of his search.

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Mar.22.2007 [ Filed under: Home Buyers, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Mateo, Foster City, Real Estate Stories ] 1 Comment »

Centrally located in Cupertino on Civic Park Lane, the Silverstone Communities Villagio is less than one mile from Symantec world headquarters and less than two miles from Apple's world headquarters and Hewlett-Packard's massive Cupertino complex.

The eight-building complex targets high-tech workers with standard connectivity pre-wired.  Cable TV outlets and four telephone lines are wired into every room.  Each unit also comes standard with gigabit-capable CAT-5e ethernet vs. the slower CAT-5.  It's a nod to us techies out there that they knew the difference.

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Mar.11.2007 [ Filed under: Neighborhoods, Cupertino ] Comment Here »

The Metropolitan is a brand new community of townhomes and condominiums located in central Cupertino just steps away from Cupertino Square (formerly Vallco).  This modern complex is a high-tech worker's dream, only minutes away from Apple's world headquarters and HP Cupertino, among other tech campuses.

I drove there from Sunnyvale near Bedford Square, close to the 85 and 101 interchange, and it was only a few miles.  Folks should have no trouble getting to and from other destinations with The Metropolitan's stone's throw proximity to 280, 880, and 17. And if you have kids, you already know about Cupertino schools.

This video quick tour highlights the Metropolitan's Tribeca floorplan with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and amenities described below. Sorry about the quality of the video — I'm still learning the ropes — but the video is much better than the thumbnail would lead you to believe!

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Feb.27.2007 [ Filed under: Neighborhoods, Cupertino ] 1 Comment »

According to the Cupertino Courier, the former Vallco (which is going to be renovated and renamed Cupertino Square) is getting a brand new high-end bowling alley, to be named "Strike." Mall general manager Mike Rohde uses the words "progressive" and "modern-looking" to describe the 38000 sqaure foot addition.  The renovation's centerpiece the new AMC movie theater which Rohde says will be open in April.

Feb.18.2007 [ Filed under: Silicon Valley News, Cupertino, Cupertino Square ] Comment Here »

The 80's neon-and-hair relic Vallco Fashion Park in Cupertino lost its battle with Westfield's Valley Fair Mall long ago and was pushed further into complete obscurity by Santana Row. 

It's hard to call Santana Row a shopping mall given its balance of city living and planned but not completely contrived urban experiences, but it was even harder to call Vallco competition against the shopping juggernaut that those two adjacent shopping "districts" formed not more than a few miles away.

Vallco (like the mall, its website is under construction) is determined to be more than just the building that houses Todai, the obscenely large sushi buffet.

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Feb.08.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News, Cupertino, Cupertino Square ] Comment Here »