It was as if they were made of gold.  You know a school district cares when they track every registration form that leaves their office for planning and budgeting purposes.  The result?  Saratoga Unified School District's API score of 952 out of 1000 is second in Silicon Valley only to Los Altos, which edges out its southeastern cousin at 960.

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And it's that time of year, when parents who want or have to make a move are packing their kids into the trusty family automobile and hauling them to find Silicon Valley real estate in the right school districts.  Saratoga is seeing no shortage of activity with 40 closed sales in May 2007 compared with similar numbers of 37 and 35 in the two preceding years.

That doesn't seem like news until you combine the slight increase in sales with the dramatic decline in new listings year-over-year.  With only 48 new listings in May 2007 — a 10-year low where the average is 80.6 over that period — there's been a 16.6% increase in Saratoga median home prices from May 2006 to 2007.  But the market isn't completely stacked towards the seller in all market segments.

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Jun.29.2007 [ Filed under: Market Updates, Saratoga ] 2 Comments »