The Los Gatos real estate market in August was strong for single family homes, cool for condos and townhouses, and a cold market in the mountains. This is a repeat from July, more or less.
1 – Los Gatos real estate market statistics for the “in town” areas: multi year data
Here is some Los Gatos real estate market data that I pulled directly from the MLS. This is for the in town areas of 95032 and 95030.
Inventory of available homes for sale in Los Gatos 95030 and Los Gatos 95032
Click on any of the images below and a larger version will pop up in a new tab and be easier to read.
Inventory in August was way up from July, but a little lower than August 2025. It was in the range of normal.
The Town of Los Gatos is home to many lovely neighborhoods with historic homes (Broadway Area Historic District, Fairview Plaza and others), but perhaps none is so quaint or popular as the Almond Grove neighborhood. (See video drive through this neighborhood near the bottom of this article.)
Location, location, location: the Almond Grove’s got it
The location itself could be very compelling alone as the Almond Grove neighborhood is as much “in town” as “walk to town” with so many activities and opportunities happening along North Santa Cruz Avenue, Main Street and University Avenue – all a stone’s throw away. Quite vibrant, downtown Los Gatos enjoys an inordinate amount of restaurants, shops, coffee houses, bars, places to dine , taste wine, stroll or take in a film. It’s also home to free musical concerts in the summer, a parade in December, a gorgeous new public library, a Farmer’s Market every weekend and many other events year round. Finally, the Almond Grove is set near two parks, Bachman Park and the Los Gatos Town Plaza, so there’s a good amount of open space nearby too. There’s something for everyone!
Traditionally designed neighborhood with good community results
The allure of the Almond Grove is more than convenience, though. There’s an old time friendliness that seems to come with the big, welcoming front porches on so many of the older houses. Dwellings are also set closer together than one might find in suburbia, too. Rather than live so much in the privacy of the backyard, there’s an invitation implicit with this combination of close neighbors and a front porch that seems to underscore that residents are part of the neighborhood community and a bit less secluded.
The Almond Grove displays that sense of community from October to January especially, when it steps out as the best decorated corner of Los Gatos with a huge percentage of participation in the effort. Halloween is a great example. People’s enthusiasm is evident in by the beginning of October as props come out for the spookiest day of the year. Sometimes even in September, “Land of the Giant” sized spiders begin to appear, life-sized ghosts start to swing from porches and trees, the normally tidy and trim picket fences become smudged with spider webs, and every manner of Halloween decor drapes the district. On Halloween night, the Almond Grove district becomes positively overrun with enthusiastic kids from all over Los Gatos. I’ve been told that some homes get as many as 1,000 trick-or-treaters on Halloween night there.
Neighborhood challenges
The plusses of the neighborhood are many! Every area has challenges, concerns, or issues, though, and this historic district is no exception.
The main issues, as I (a non-resident) see them are beach traffic and fire hazards / insurance concerns. The proposed new fire map can be seen here. Much of this neighborhood is in one Cal Fire hazard severity zone or another. Insurance companies use their own maps (which aren’t published), and being near hills and open space with dry grasses and brush can make it challenging to obtain regular insurance.
Thinking of moving to, or buying a house in Los Gatos?
Particularly for people relocating to Los Gatos (or generally to Silicon Valley) from other areas, or from parts of Santa Clara County not by the hills, there are a few home buying tips you’ll want to know before purchasing a home in the “Town of the Cats”. (For locals, these may seem obvious!)
Here are our top 5 things you should know when looking for a home in Los Gatos, CA.
1. Los Gatos & Schools
Whether you have school aged kids or not, you’ll want to know that there are several school districts covering the Los Gatos area. School district lines do not follow the town’s boundaries. (Some years ago I met someone with a home to sell in the Belgatos area and he had no idea that his home did not belong to the Los Gatos Union School District. This caused him to misunderstand the likely market value of his property.)
You can check a property’s district a few ways. Many schools have public boundary maps, and you can always call to confirm with the school district itself. The County of Santa Clara has another lookup service. After accepting the terms of service and checking the bot-filter, then you will be allowed to search an address. Once you have the address information, click the tab titled “School District/Tax Rate Area” and the information will be right at the top.
Areas closest to “downtown Los Gatos,” especially the historic neighborhoods (including Almond Grove, Edelen, Broadway, Fairview Plaza) tend to be much more expensive than those further out. The “walk to town” or “close to town” proximity makes them highly desireable, but also these regions of town are very scenic and have some fabulous Victorian and other beautiful architectural styles, and tree-lined streets.
One challenge faced by downtown residents is worsening beach traffic. The downtown area is a popular spot any day of the week, but it can be bumper-to-bumper on a hot summer weekend with cars inching across the pass on 17 to Santa Cruz.
Related to both #1 and #2, the public schools are not all that close to downtown Los Gatos, except for Los Gatos High School in the heart of Town on Main Street. (St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School is in the downtown area, as is the adjacent Los Gatos Parent Nursery School.) Much of central and downtown Los Gatos also have the enjoyment and challenges associated with the next on our list, #3.
3. Hillside locales
If you buy a house close to a hill, among some hills or on a hill, you will need to pay close attention to issues which are less common in flatter areas further from slopes. Among them are foundation, water and drainage concerns. Some flat areas near the hills may have a high water table, many springs that come seasonally or in very wet years as well as runoff problems.
Water is often far more damaging than termites but it is not really uncommon to find water in a crawl space during the rainy season. Learn about it and pay heed to property inspectors’ suggestions regarding remediation if it’s a condition in a house you want to purchase.
Additionally, with fire seasons worsening newer fire hazard zoning has had major impacts on property insurance and residential construction. Many homes near the foothills or any open space are designated in the High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. Some homes must also abide by Defensible Space requirements.
I wrote about this on my Valley of Hearts Delight blog (covering all of Santa Clara County, but mostly the west valley) and suggest these two articles:
Some homes with a “Los Gatos address” may not actually be in the town of Los Gatos. Many are in a county pocket or unincorporated area (and may not have all the services of the Town). A very few are actually part of either Campbell, Saratoga, or San Jose but were assigned a Los Gatos mailing address by the US Post Office.
How can you tell if a residence is within the Town of Los Gatos, is unincorporated, or part of another city? Santa Clara County has an interactive map with the boundaries. You can also search for a specific address and look under “Zoning” and “General Plan” to see where that address is mapped. In the past, the house number (how many digits) or whether or not the street had curbs and gutters were telltale signs, but since many unincorporated pockets have been incorporated over the years it’s not always obvious today which is which.
What difference does it make? The actual address (not mailing address) will impact a variety of things such as services (sherriff vs Los Gatos Monte Sereno police, free access to Oak Meadow Park), planning (any additions, remodels etc. will need to be approved by your actual city), voting in Los Gatos elections, etc.
5. Los Gatos is a town, not a city
Los Gatos is a town. (Monte Sereno, with whom we share some services, is much smaller but is a city, not a town.) This means our government is run a little differently. For instance, we don’t vote for mayor. Instead, we vote for town council members. They, in turn, vote for mayor. (Usually it’s a rotation.)
According to Wikipedia: “There are 481 incorporated municipalities in California, of which 459 are called cities and 22 are called towns.” [Edit: this quote was accurate as of Feb 28, 2011, but has been edited since. On Oct 24, 2017, the page lists 482 municipalities, 22 of which call themselves Towns.] I was surprised that there are so many towns – had thought it was only a handful!
Los Gatos is an interesting, fun, welcoming town. If you’re moving to the area, it’s a vibrant place you should check out. Please call or email me if you’d like more assistance.
The Glenridge and Bachman Park neighborhood of Los Gatos is one of the most scenic residential areas anywhere in Silicon Valley. It features beautiful, custom, mostly historic homes on meandering streets.
Set just above the Almond Grove neighborhood on a gentle hill it, too, is close to town but with a little more altitude and better vistas. The other nearby neighbor is the Fairview Plaza. So much history in such a close area!
These are really two separate neighborhoods or districts, but they are similar in many ways and are directly adjacent to each other, so we are covering them together.
Bachman Park is set in in the middle of this area and includes several acres alongside a creek. The park offers picnic tables, a playground, basketball courts and a large grassy field for picnics or play. A paved path follows the creek on one side of it – making a wonderful place just for strolling. (Bachman Park refers to both the park and its immediate neighborhood.) We did this video a few years back, but the neighborhood’s character hasn’t changed much.
Where is the Glenridge and Bachman Park neighborhood?
This charming older Los Gatos neighborhood is set just up the hill from the Almond Grove Historic District and adjacent to Fairview Plaza. (more…)
Home buyers are really struggling to find properties that fit their needs and their budget right now. This morning I pulled the data and saw that we now have a critically low inventory of homes for sale in Los Gatos in 95030 and 95032, or “in town”. Below, please find the numbers so that you can see what a more typical month in the Gem City of the Foothills looks like. Separately, I’ll run the data for Los Gatos 95033, the Los Gatos Mountains.
Inventory of homes for sale in Los Gatos 95030 & 95032
Here are the numbers via MLS Listings for single family homes (99% houses, tiny fraction of duet homes, or single family attached – not duplexes) from January 2000 through June 2024.
In “normal years” (apart from the Great Recession or Global Financial Collapse and its fallout), we often have 80-100 homes listed for sale in town. Inventory is low right now, but it’s closer to the 25 year average than we’ve seen recently. Please note, this is not for just one school district, zip code part of town, price point, etc. If we teased out the data by school district or some other factor it might shake out a little differently. Think of this as a very broad, general picture of housing availability in town.
Having 100 houses on the market is actually not too bad for June. From about 2012 and later, it’s a little low, but not inordinately so.
Please click the image below to see a larger version of it in a new tab.
Is the low inventory really the issue?
I believe that the problem isn’t so much the number of homes for sale as the quality of homes for sale. Many of them have location problems or condition issues. Today’s buyers want to purchase move-in ready houses in a quiet spot with no location deficiencies. A good chuck of listings today are from “have to sell” situations and are not as updated as most home buyers prefer. Many have location problems, such as being next to something undesirable, like a freeway or high voltage power line.
The houses that are in great shape, in superior locations, with no big issues (think property condition, foundation / drainage or other costly repairs) and which are priced aggressively are selling quickly and with multiple offers in many cases.
Inventory of homes for sale in Los Gatos 95033
There is not an inventory shortage in the mountains! The 25 year average in June is 42.6 homes for sale, and we had 51! Check out the last 12 months!
The Los Gatos real estate market in August was strong for single family homes, cool for condos and townhouses, and a cold market in the mountains. This is a repeat from July, more or less.
The allure of the Almond Grove is more than convenience, though. There’s an old time friendliness that seems to come with the big, welcoming front porches on so many of the older houses. Dwellings are also set closer together than one might find in suburbia, too. Rather than live so much in the privacy of the backyard, there’s an invitation implicit with this combination of close neighbors and a front porch that seems to underscore that residents are part of the neighborhood community and a bit less secluded.
