Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog – 1SiliconValley.com

High density developments are becoming the wave of the future.  Perhaps the most prominent "high density" development in the Bay Area is Santana Row with trendy shops & exclusive restaurants, and contemporary residential lofts tantalizing the progressive bay area resident to be a part of this movement.  

This has become desirable for many bay area residents that want to have entertainment, shopping and a social outlet waiting just outside their front door.  Many downtown businesses sense the high demand of residential-retail zoning, which is alluring many business districts to take advantage of this commercial high density epidemic.

The public concern for high density zoning is that it will bring unmanageable traffic and cars and high taxes and noise to the community.  On the flip side, some residents have voiced excitement and acceptance that it will bring money to the city, restaurants and better quality entertainment.  Moreover, it will lead to higher economic activity and productivity, save tax dollars, and increase property value.  As worrisome or exciting as it may be to the community, there is hardly an area untouched by this new wave of high density development; San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Campbell, Los Gatos and even Willow Glen are all conforming to this new way of life.

An example of high density development that has majority of public acceptance is Sunnyvale Town Center’s new urban development project.  It has been underway for some time but the ultimate outcome will be 991,000 square feet of retail space, 315,000 square feet of office space and 292 ownership housing units.  There will be a 14-screen movie theater and a 200 room hotel located at Murphy and McKinley Avenues.  The 184-acres project encompasses a large block bounded by Mathilda, Washington, Sunnyvale and Iowa Avenues, known as the Town Center Mall.  The shops are planned to start opening in early 2009.  The vision of this new development is for a lively people-friendly place for shopping, working, living and entertainment. 

Sunnyvale residents are actually quite pleased with the new development, as it will bring in revenue for the city, increase visibility to the area, bring in restaurants, and retail and ultimately boost their home values.  Some residents of other neighborhoods are not quite as pleased.

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July 02, 2008 | Filed under: San Jose, Santana Row, Sunnyvale

Please join our own Sara Greenwood at the Grapevine in Willow Glen on Wednesday, July 9th at 6pm. 

She’s hosting a neighborhood mixer in her home town with plenty of food, wine and non-alcoholic beverages too.  For more information and details on the event, please visit her page on Willow Glen 2.0.

July 02, 2008 | Filed under: San Jose

Rep. Honda’s office contacted us about the workshop the Congressman is hosting on protecting your home from foreclosure.  This is a mainstream topic even for folks in Silicon Valley where we have a high average income and many people who are generally financially savvy. 

Here are some details of the event they’d like to publicize:

5:00 p.m. “? 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Berryessa Branch Library
Community Room
3355 Noble Avenue
San José, CA 95132

Attendance is free and open to the public.

Please RSVP by email at Honda.RSVP (at) mail.house.gov

For more information please contact Christine Pham or Chris Schwarz in the Campbell office at 408-558-8085.

June 30, 2008 | Filed under: Silicon Valley News

A contingency in a real estate purchase contract is a way in which a buyer (or seller) could get out of the contract within a set period of time for a particular reason. For example, if there is a buyer contingency that the home must appraise to purchase price, but the appraisal comes in low, the buyer can get out of the agreement because of this – as long as the buyer has not already signed for the removal of that contingency. A seller might have a contingency that the sale of the home is contingent upon the seller finding a replacement property.

Most home buyers and sellers in Silicon Valley understand that ordinarily, home purchases are contingent upon or "subject to" their approval of the property’s condition and upon getting the desired loan. Under the broad umbrella of property condition and financing, though, there are other relevant or supporting issues, and consumers may not be aware of them.

For instance, with a loan or finance contingency, there are several key steps to go through in order to be assured that the lending institution will extend the loan as planned.

A pre-approval means that the buyer has turned in bank statements, pay stubs, copies of recent income tax forms, debt information, and so on – and all of it has been submitted to a lender (not just the person taking the loan application, who has conditionally approved it). With that approval, the lender then should require only a ratified purchase agreement, a preliminary title report, and a satisfactory appraisal.  Actually, though, there’s a little more to it than that. What other issues could there be?

• if loan rates change substantially and the buyer has not "locked" the loan, it may not be guaranteed
• if there’s a delay in the close of escrow (rain forcing a delay in fumigating the property, for instance) and the buyer’s loan lock rate expires, the lender may not grant the loan
• many lenders require an "outside appraisal review" and if it doesn’t get through that step unscathed, the buyer may not get the loan
• natural disasters such as fire or earthquake can cause lenders to pull the loan until the property is reinspected and/or reappraised

So buyers and sellers will want a little more information than simply "the buyer is preapproved". Here’s what they need to know.

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June 27, 2008 | Filed under: Silicon Valley News

It’s a sweet day when homeowners discover they’re getting multiple offers on their property. But for buyers competing for a house, it’s a nail-biter.
 
Over the years, I’ve developed two novel strategies to help buyers win bidding war.
 
First, I aim to be the last presenter. Why? I can often gauge what offers sellers have already seen and probe them to identify their concerns. Also, by that time, they’re ready to make a decision.
 
In addition, I always try to bring my clients when I present offers to the listing agent.
 
If my clients are sitting in the same room, we can often cut the negotiation time from a couple days of phone calls down to a matter of minutes”?something desirable for eager sellers. It’s an enormous strategic advantage to be able to discuss and ratify changes on the spot.
 
The other benefit is that buyers are humanized when sellers can meet them and talk with them.
 
Such was the case in a recent negotiation for a highly desirable Sunnyvale property. When I discovered there were two offers on the table, we opted for a full-price offer.  
 
At the presentation, one offer was rejected immediately, and the listing agent let me know our competitor’s offer was better than ours. So we countered with a higher price–an additional $5,000 over the asking price–and removed our contingencies. I later learned that our competitor’s offer was still better than ours.
 
Yet, the sellers had met my clients, an engaged couple enthusiastic about buying their first home together. It turns out that the groom-to-be and the husband of the seller both worked for the same high-profile technology company, though neither knew one another. Nonetheless, that shared experience created something of a bond. My buyers were no longer just a generic couple. The sellers, rather than seeing just figures on a page saw faces and personalities and had some insight into the buyers’ aspirations.
 
The result: My clients won the bidding war. And the sellers even decided to give the house to them for a thousand dollars less than our final bid as a courtesy.
 
Had my buyers not been at the presentation, I’m convinced the competitor’s offer would have been accepted.

Related: Not Overpaying for Buying a Home

June 21, 2008 | Filed under: Home Buyers

California’s 2007 Base API scores have been released and, looking at the complete list of Santa Clara 2007 Base API scores, congratulations need to go to Los Altos, Saratoga, Cupertino, and Palo Alto elementary school districts for maintaining district API averages above 900.  While this is par for the course in these districts, to put this achievement in perspective, the overall state API for all grades is 728.

There are two other metrics in the report, statewide rank and similar schools rank, both ratings from 1 to 10.  Each number represents a decile, with 10 being the top 10% of all schools in that category.

This metric compares schools that have similar characteristics, based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, teacher credentials, and (about a dozen) other factors.  So which number matters more: the state or similar schools rank?

By far, the state number.  Let’s look at some of the Cupertino Union figures for examples. 

The third column is the state ranking and the fourth is for similar schools: Blue Hills is 10/8, Collins is 10/7, and DeVargas is 8/2.  Eisenhower and Muir (not shown) are both 10/2 with API scores of 906 and 894 respectively.

The difference in API between 10/8 and 10/7 is only 10 points, but the difference between a 10/2 and 8/2 is about 60 points.  The reason is because schools that are alike tend to have similar performance.  When you group those schools together and rank them, some turn out to be the best of the group and others the lowest-rated of the group.  

So if a 10/10 school is the best of the best, should parents be worried about a 10/2 school like Eisenhower or Muir elementary?  There is room for improvement, but a 10 means the school is in the top 10% of all schools in California.  At that level, I’d be more focused on what programs, classes and activities a school has to offer than beating other quality schools in standardized tests.

May 23, 2008 | Filed under: Schools, Silicon Valley News

If you have elderly relatives or friends who live in San Mateo County, you may be interested in this announcement from the office of San Mateo’s Fifth District Supervisor Adrienne Tissier. 

They asked if we could pass along this information to the consumers and real estate agents who read and subscribe to the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog.  The event they want to publicize is the free Livable Communities for Successful Aging forum:

It will be held on May 30th at the San Mateo County Events Center.  The purpose of the forum is to allow members of the community to identify characteristics of developments that will be attractive to residents as they age and remain in San Mateo County.

By the year 2030, the county’s health department estimates that about 30% of all residents will be 65 years of age or order (about 160,000 persons). 

The forum will focus on what people would like to see developed along the El Camino Real– not only what types of buildings but also the services that would be attractive enough that people would decide to move to the El Camino and to remain in San Mateo County. 

From that vision we hope that we can offer principles of a livable community that will be adopted by city councils and the county.  The forum is sponsored by the County of San Mateo, the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, and Samtrans.

For more information, please visit the Successful Aging website.

May 22, 2008 | Filed under: San Mateo

A school district’s reputation and test scores are a badge of honor for many Bay Area neighborhoods and their homeowners, so with the impending release of the 2007 Base API scores, it’s important to understand what they mean relative to the previous year’s scores.

The tests and the methodology the California Department of Education (CDE) uses to assess the academic performance of its school districts evolve every year, by what they call the "phase-in of new assessments (indicators) into the API" on page 13 of this 73-page PDF explaining the 2007-2008 performance index.   

In order to maintain an apples-to-apples comparison, the CDE uses two metrics: the base API and the next year’s growth API, both of which use the same tests.  That ties the two scores together for comparison.  So, for example, you can see how well your schools have improved by comparing the 2007 Base API scores (from spring 2007) with the 2008 Growth API scores (from spring this year).  This 2008 Growth API scores will be released in August.

Homeowners and buyers shouldn’t compare 2006 Base API scores directly with 2007 Base API scores to gauge the direction of their school district.  We need to use API growth over a period of time, as in the chart above.  An up-and-coming school district will have positive growth scores over several years, and an elite school district should see relatively little change in that same period. 

The hypothetical chart above taken from the PDF document could represent a good school district that worked its way to elite status between 2003 and 2004, and for their homeowners, it probably represents the culmination of a lot of community effort and participation in their children’s education.

May 21, 2008 | Filed under: Schools

There is a new luxury development that has been getting a lot of attention lately because of its location and close proximity to downtown Mountain View.  Not only is it close to the downtown area, but it is also within walking distance to the Mt. View Caltrain station, has freeway access close-by, and is surrounded by single family homes, parks, the Center for the Performing Arts and City Hall offices.  The Wild Orchid development is located on the corner of Dana Street and Calderon Avenue.

The exclusiveness to this area is because of the very convenient location to downtown.  It is only a ½ mile walk to the heart of where all the action is; downtown restaurants, unique shops, night clubs, coffee shops, and independent book stores are just a few of the niceties.  And if you get in now to one of these homes you won’t have to fight the parking situation of the ever-so-popular Mountain View Art and Wines Festival, coming September 7-8, 2008.

The builder of Wild Orchid development is Castle Companies, which is a family owned and operated builder in Northern California .  They have been around since 1966 and are recently building communities as far north as Yolo County , Napa Valley , down the East Bay and now into the Peninsula , which brings us to the Wild Orchid community.  The naming of these communities is as unique as each setting where these new developments are being built. 

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May 16, 2008 | Filed under: Mountain View, Silicon Valley News

For the past several years, there has been a great deal of rezoning of property from commercial to residential in the 94089 zip code of North Sunnyvale.  Within this particular plot of land bordered by Tasman Drive on the North, Morse Avenue and Fair Oaks Avenue on the West and East, and Weddell Drive running along the South end, there’s been a great land grab by various developers.

With the exception of the building pictured here, located on Fair Oaks currently leased to Paramount Tumbling and Gymnastics, various new developments have sprung up throughout the area such as City Park and Verona by luxury builder Toll Brothers, Parkside Villas, Tasman, and Crossman Place built by popular local builders Barry Swenson and Palo Alto based Classic Communities. 

One of the very first developers to stake claim to North Sunnyvale is also one of the nation’s largest builders, Pulte Homes, who built their first development Danbury Place of 168 homes in 2004.  Since then, Pulte Homes has been actively buying more land within this small one block radius and since their 2004 debut, has built 30 homes in Danbury III in 2006, 43 homes in Danbury IV in 2007, and 36 homes in Danbury II in 2008 for a total of 277 homes.  

There has been previous negotiations with the owner of the Paramount Tumbler and Gymnastics building that had not resulted in the sale of the property in past.  It sounds like now, the "last man standing" is interested in re-opening talks with various builders including Pulte Homes.  Could we see a Danbury Place V on the horizon?

Pricing for Danbury I homes in 2004 ranged from $590,000 – $630,000.  Today, Danbury Place has only 10 homes (including model homes) remaining scheduled to all be complete by August 2008.  Prices ranging from $728,900 – $834,900.  

We keep our ears close to the ground for the latest real estate news to ensure our clients have the best representation.  After all, new home construction affects the entire real estate market for both buyers and sellers.  For more information on new homes and MLS properties in North Sunnyvale, please contact Alex Wang here at the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog.

May 13, 2008 | Filed under: Sunnyvale