Looking to purchase a Los Gatos fixer property with upside potential? Please check out 39 Reservoir Road, a stone’s throw from downtown. It’s new to the market this week!
Offered at $1,850,000
Situated in a scenic hillside area full of multi-million dollar homes, this historic property includes the original house plus two accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. One is attached (a “junior” ADU or JADU) and the other is detached.
Each of these enjoys 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and laundry. Each one has about 1000 – 1100 square feet of living space.
Unit A is the house, closest to the street, built sometime between 1876 and 1888. It is historic, and it is listed as such with the town. Unit B appears to be historic as well, but we don’t know the age. (These two are classic Los Gatos fixers and do need a substantial amount of work.)
Unit C is far younger, built in the late 80s. This home provides a large, sunny deck off of the main floor – it tremendously expands the livable area. Inside, there’s a valley view visible from the living room. Downstairs are the bedrooms, bathroom, garage, and laundry.
St. Mary’s Country Fair in Los Gatos is a fun, annual community event that occurs the second weekend of October (skipped last year due to Covid).
This year, it’s OctoberOct 10th – 10th, 2021. There’s also a great shopping opportunity on Thursday with the popular Harvest Market.
New this year, please note: Covid precautions. This is a masked event, and everyone is required to wear a mask except when eating or drinking. There will be no pancake breakfast or spaghetti dinner for safety reasons also.
Also new this year: this is a cashless event. You’ll be able to use credit cards or debit cards, but not cash.
Open to everyone, and with no admission fee, the three day fundraiser is a great place to enjoy so many cool things, including:
Butler Carnival rides (separate tickets)
bouncy house
country store shopping
arts & crafts (such as pumpkin decorating)
martial arts displays
dancing
dining (good and affordable!) – several food booths to choose from
raffle
play games
giant slide
full service coffee shop
margarita booth
talent show
live bands
bingo (of course!)
Harvest Market
Hours for the Country Fair:
Friday, October 8, 5 pm to 10 pm
Saturday, October 9, 10 am to 10 pm
Sunday, October 10, 10 am to 5 pm
Hours for the Harvest Market Thursday Oct 7:
11 am to 4 pm no entrance fee
Evening Shopping from 5 pm to 9 pm $20 entrance fee
Shop, Appetizers, Drinks, Raffle & Music
Tickets presale or at the door
This is a fabulous place to walk through and simply bump into friends & neighbors from all over Los Gatos and the nearby communities. It’s also a fun place to take photos. Each day is a little different, some return again and again!
Details
St. Mary’s Church and School are located in downtown Los Gatos on Bean Avenue near Tait (and near North Santa Cruz Avenue) in the historic Almond Grove neighborhood. You can also reach the party by coming from Main Street and Lyndon Avenue.
Purchase advance tickets for rides, raffles, food, and more using this form. To get all the details on the hours, booths, events, please check the St Mary’s Country Fair website.
Extra tips:
Like a bargain? There’s an easy way to save money. Visit the parish or school office before Friday at 2pm and buy your Butler ride tickets at a substantial discount – and avoid the lines! (Tickets are sold in the 2 weeks leading up to the fair most years.)
Also, much of the Almond Grove District of Los Gatos has permit parking only in the evenings. So don’t park in the neighborhood! There are lots of public parking spaces between North Santa Cruz and University Avenues in Los Gatos, and they are no cost, so park there instead. I usually like to park between North Santa Cruz Avenue and University Avenue in the public lot. If you’re in biking distance, consider cycling in – just remember lights are required when biking in the dark, and remember road safety!
Low inventory has been the headline story in the Los Gatos real estate market since spring 2020! Here’s a multiple year view of single family homes for sale in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 since January 2015 – I find this to be enlightening since any one year can be an anomaly. The chart below shows us that the average inventory for Los Gatos in September can vary, but usually sits somewhere between the low 80s to low 70s and rarely as small as 60. This September fell well below that range with only 43 active listings, the lowest across all visible years!
Seasonal trends for 2020 were thrown completely off shortly after the lockdown order. Inventory never grew to the expected level that spring with available listings consistently shrinking from May through January and hardly any growth in spring 2021, despite the vaccine and subsequent reopening!
The ultra low number of listings is due to many factors, one of them being the current coronavirus pandemic and health and safety concerns. Although most things have reopened, things aren’t back to the pre-pandemic norm. For a look at how Covid-19 affected the local real estate market today, please check Coronavirus Impact on Real Estate Sales on my other blog.
Covid restrictions have mostly been lifted, and Silicon Valley remains in a hot seller’s market with limited inventory. If you’re interested in selling your home this year, check out my article on how to Sell Your Home in 2021. When you’re ready to talk to an agent I would love to hear from you!
What is selling best in LG right now?
In general, single family homes listed at or under $2.5 million are selling well, with their sales averaging around 5.7% over list price in September. Those listed upwards of $2.5 millions are also frequently selling above asking with an average of roughly 3.7% above list price. Even so, there are exceptions in both groups.
Certain things can skew the data. For instance, a home in Los Gatos listed just under $1.9 million took 100 days to sell, and sold around 1.3% below list price, while another listed at $3.2 million sold nearly 12.5% above asking ($400K over) in just 3 days! When planning to buy or sell, it’s best to look at the data within a mile of your home (or the one you want to buy), and across similar properties, excluding the sales which aren’t comparable.
By the numbers: Of the 39 single family home sales in Los Gatos (not including the mountain market) in September on the MLS, none sold under $1.5 million, 6 sold under $2 million, 21 sold from $2 to $3 million, 5 sold above $3 million and below $4 million, 5 sold between $4 to $5 million, 1 sold over $5 million and another sold over $6 million!
The high end price point tends to be around $3,000,000 and up for this part of Santa Clara County, although it’s been creeping upwards with the overly hot market we’ve been experiencing. The vast majority of what sold would not be considered luxury properties, even though in most areas of the U.S. these would be luxury price tags.
Los Gatos real estate statistics at a glance for 95030 & 95032
Next, data from the RE Report for Los Gatos (“in town”), in the Los Gatos Mountains, and for Los Gatos condos (only in town, none in the mountain communities) – the entire Los Gatos real estate market combined. Below that are the live Altos Research charts, updated automatically each week. Altos uses list prices, not sold prices.
The numbers below analyze data gathered during the first week of each month and cover real estate statistics from the month prior in Los Gatos 95030 & 95032 (all areas / school districts), or MLS “area 16”. See the full RE Report here.
Trends At a Glance
Sep 2021
Previous Month
Year-over-Year
Median Price
$2,710,800 (-8.1%)
$2,950,000
$2,350,000 (+15.4%)
Average Price
$3,249,660 (-0.1%)
$3,253,780
$2,491,080 (+30.5%)
No. of Sales
37 (-7.5%)
40
37 (0.0%)
Pending
61 (+10.9%)
55
51 (+19.6%)
Active
47 (-6.0%)
50
55 (-14.5%)
Sale vs. List Price
105.1% (-0.2%)
105.4%
102.5% (+2.6%)
Days on Market
15 (-23.8%)
20
29 (-46.6%)
Days of Inventory
37 (-1.8%)
38
43 (-14.5%)
Prices for Los Gatos real estate haven’t changed much month-over-month, but compared to last year they’ve risen about 15%-30%! Last year’s market had a higher number of active listings, but fewer pending sales. Compared to last month, closed sales and active inventory fell short while pending sales grew. The sales vs list price ratio shrank a hair month-over-month, still well above last year at a red hot 105.1% of asking.
Overall, despite some seasonal cooling it remains a busy seller’s market in Los Gatos, likely impacted by pent up demand from the last two years.
Ranch style home on Elm Park in Monte Sereno, sold by Mary Pope-Handy
The City of Monte Sereno is quite small, with just about 4,000 residents, so the number of houses sold in any given month will always be extremely small.
For that reason, the data may appear to jump around wildly compared to Los Gatos or Saratoga, which each have about 30,000 people living there. Please take these statistics with a tablespoon of salt, and be sure to view the Los Gatos housing market data to get a more accurate picture of what’s happening with Monte Sereno homes (just add a little to the price tag as homes there tend to sell for a bit more than LG properties).
Also, there are only single family, detached houses in Monte Sereno: no apartments, multi unit housing (2 – 4 plex), no duet homes (attached single family homes). That will be changing soon, however, as the old La Hacienda property (formerly an estate, then a hotel and restaurant) at Hwy 9 and Austin Way (aka Austin Corners) is under development and incorporation into Monte Sereno with plans to include 7 townhomes and 8 duet homes in addition to standalone single family dwellings. Some of those designs have already been listed on the MLS and sold.
This month’s data will reflect some of the effects of the pandemic on the real estate market, but not the whole picture – plenty has changed since March 2020! To learn more about how Covid-19 is affecting the local real estate market, please check Coronavirus Impact on Real Estate Sales on my other blog.
During the shutdown so far, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) stopped the timer on all Days on Market (DOM) for a time. Therefore these numbers will be off beginning from March 17th through around May 17th, 2020. In the data below, this will affect any numbers related to the days on market, the absorption rate, and the days of inventory from those months, but current numbers should be accurate.
First up for the market analysis is the Altos Research weekly profile for Monte Sereno (uses list prices, not sales):
This chart shows a strong seller’s market, heating up from a slight seller’s advantage last month. Inventory is extremely small, days on market are stable, and most indicators suggest it is a hot market!
The Los Gatos Fall Wine Walk takes place this weekend, Saturday, Oct. 2, from 1 – 4 pm, in downtown Los Gatos. Over 30 wineries will be participating!
Tickets are $50 in advance ($55 at the event, but it usually sells out). Loads of info on the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce’s website, including the long list of participants.
The Magical Glass Pumpkin Patch is returning to Los Gatos! This is a one weekend only event, so mark your calendars for the first weekend in October so you don’t miss it!
Normally this is an annual event, and we are delighted that it’s back in 2021. You’ll find gorgeous hand blown glass pumpkins and more – wonderful craftsmanship!
See the gallery of glass pumpkins and more HERE.
All the fun happens on the lawn of the Los Gatos High School on Main Street.
Their Facebook page (link below) states “We have raised over $250,000 for high school art and English programs via this annual event!”
You can get an advance look, but not purchase, the art on Friday Oct 1 from 5 – 7 p.m.
The items will be offered for sale on Saturday October 2 9a.m. and Sunday October 3 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Go early for the best selection!
The annual Los Gatos Fiesta de Artes is back and has a new name: Los Gatos Art & Wine Festival. (I don’t see Fiesta de Artes anywhere on the festival’s website except in the URL) In 2020 it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but we are delighted that it returns this weekend!
If you’ve never been, it’s a fabulous opportunity to mill around the Civic Center lawn and enjoy art of various types. It’s free! If you’d like to partake of food and wine, the proceeds all go to a very good cause.
What happens at the Fiesta de Artes or the Los Gatos Art & Wine Festival?
Think food & drink, art & shopping, dancing & socializing! Once again, there will be more than 150 vendors with a huge variety of artists and vendors displaying and selling their artwork, plus booths with food and wine and of course loads of music throughout both days. Please check out the musical lineup and food offerings info here: Fiesta music and food
Fiesta de Artes will be at the Civic Center lawn across the street from Los Gatos High School – 110 E Main Street, Los Gatos CA 95030
Please check out all of the details at the event’s website:
