What is the pricing difference between homes with the Los Gatos Union School District and those with either Union Elementary School District or the Campbell union Elementary School District? It is not huge, but it is noticeable.
For this study I wanted to compare similar sized homes and lots in various parts of Los Gatos 95030 and 95032. Extremely narrow parameters resulted in too small of a group, and I ended up using 2000 – 3000 SF houses on lots of 9,000 – 11,000 SF. There were 27 such single family homes sold in 2021, so not a large group. It is spread throughout the year since when I attempted to narrow it just to one quarter there were not enough homes.
Additionally, I wanted to look at three specific neighborhoods to check the pricing difference between them and their respective school districts as a whole. For this I selected the Old Adobe Road area in West Los Gatos, Blossom Manor with the Los Gatos Union School District, and the Belwood-Belgatos-Surmont area with the Union School District in East Los Gatos.
Here are the results of the 2021 pricing differences study (please note that homes may cost considerably more today as values are up quite a lot from last year):
Homes with Los Gatos Schools are the most expensive, followed by the homes in West LG, and then just a hair behind them are houses in East LG.
In the highest demand, as measured by the sale price to list price ratio, were the homes in Blossom Manor. That’s easy to understand because it’s a close to everything location, including Blossom Hill Elementary, Blossom Hill Park, and loads of shops, stores, coffee houses, and restaurants.
Next highest in demand for neighborhoods is the Belwood, Belgatos, and Surmont area, which offers the biggest bang for your buck in town.
What is the pricing difference for homes in these 3 school districts?
Pricing difference on a hypothetical 2300 SF house
If we use a mythical 2300 SF house, here’s how the dollars would shake out:
These numbers are imperfect because they were spread out over a whole year, but if we assume that all houses were equally spread out (so appreciation doesn’t muddy the waters), we find that buying the 2300 SF house in Blossom Manor will generally run $292,146 (appx 10%) more than in the Los Gatos Union School District as a whole.
Purchasing the 2300 SF house on the west side of town with Campbell schools will save you about $567,180 over buying it with LG Schools – that is about a 19% savings. It will be a little less than that if you settle on the scenic Old Adobe Road area. There the savings amount to $352,751, or 12% less than if you purchased something “with the schools”.
You can make your dollars stretch a little further in East LG with Union schools, particularly if you go out near Belgatos Park. (The old car ad used to say “drive a little, save a lot”.) For those commuting to tech centers in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and beyond, this may be too far. For those working in downtown San Jose, though, it’s a quicker commute. The savings on our hypothetical 2300 SF house would be $572,562 as compared to buying the same type of house with Los Gatos Schools. That’s a 19% difference!
Depending on all kinds of factors, historically, the delta often appears to be 10-20%. Today’s study seems to confirm that generally, this is still true. There will be more and less expensive pockets, though. Here I’ve compared one suburban style neighborhood with another. Should you want to study the historic districts in downtown Los Gatos, you’d be finding the high end of pricing!
Sometimes there are properties which sell with so many offers that a price gets spiked.
For buyers reading this and wondering how much prices may have changed, please check out the article on this website on the Los Gatos real estate market trends and statistics.
Related reading:
Los Gatos real estate market trends by price point and high school district
Los Gatos real estate market post on the Valley of Heart’s Delight blog (sister site)
