San Jose Condo Sales

Report:

With the market soft and the economy slumping, depreciation is of course a factor in the median price decline. But worsening the slide in median prices is the fact that post-foreclosure home sales are a growing portion of Santa Clara County's transactions. Those homes are typically sold at a discount by the lenders who repossessed them.

More than one-third of the resale homes sold in the county last month had been foreclosed upon sometime in the previous 12 months, DataQuick said. A year earlier, such properties made up less than 4 percent of sales.

Meanwhile, sales of "luxury" homes have dwindled as a force in the market. That happened first in reaction to higher interest rates for the so-called jumbo loans used by many buyers in the valley's most expensive communities. And it's happening now in reaction to the troubled financial markets.

For example, in October 2007, nearly 30 percent of resale houses sold for $1 million or more. Last month, just 11 percent of house sales were in that category. Meanwhile, sales of houses for $300,000 or less went from 4.6 percent to 9.9 percent of sales, according to DataQuick.

Mai Tran and her husband, Bryan, started looking for a home in San Jose's Cambrian neighborhood in the summer, and made four or five offers before sealing a deal for the three-bedroom house they moved into about a week ago. Their budget was about $700,000, but they only had to spend about $650,000 for the home they wanted. Tran said prices came down "a little bit, not that much" during her four-month house hunt, but said she thinks they could drop more now that the economy looks so bleak.

REPORT:

San Jose - Those new high rise residential buildings in downtown San Jose are selling pretty well according to the latest figures. They report a 150% increase in sales over last year with 69 new condo units purchased in Santa Clara County in September.

Laura Medanich is the Marketing Director for The 88 high rise and she confirms that sales are going well despite a downturn in the housing market elsewhere. Medanich says people with steady jobs, a down payment and the expectation to live in the home for at least two years are the ones they're seeing buying the downtown condo units. She adds the high rises are seeing what has to be considered a normal housing market in the middle of the storm.

The fact that the new residential towers were not available during the questionable lending practices that caused the mortgage crisis appear to have worked in favor of the new buildings. Medanich says this is the way the housing market used to be before the mortgage meltdown.

REPORT:

Zillow's report found that the median estimated value of all types of homes — houses and condos, regardless of whether they have sold recently or not — in the San Jose metro area fell to $640,803 in the third quarter, down 14 percent from the third quarter of 2007. Values have not been so low since the third quarter of 2004, the company said.

Humphries noted that home values in Santa Clara County cities such as Cupertino and Mountain View finally began to slip in the third quarter, despite the fact that other parts of the county already have seen double-digit depreciation.

"Prior to this quarter we were thinking of those as oases," he said. "It's very evident just how much the San Jose metro region has been buoyed by the tech sector."

In Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, the company said, the median estimated value of all homes declined between 1 and 2 percent in the third quarter, compared with a year earlier. Monte Sereno was the only community in the county where values rose compared with third quarter 2007, rising 1.3 percent.

REPORT:

Landmark Tower, a first-of-its-kind 18-story condominium project planned for western Milpitas, received conditional approval last week from Milpitas City Council. It approved the proposed $500-million, 375-unit mixed-use residential, retail and office high-rise at 600 Barber Lane at the former Billings Chevrolet dealership site.

Billed as a place that will offer unmatched views of the North Valley, Landmark Tower would also include three private parks contained inside, as well as one rooftop park.

The council's approval for Landmark Tower, following a Milpitas Planning Commission recommendation in late October, signs off on the final environmental impact report, conditional use permit, and general plan amendments that change the land-use of the three acre site from general commercial to very high density mixed-use with a high rise overlay.

"This is an infill site that is being redeveloped with high density," James Lindsay, Milpitas Planning and Neighborhood Services director, told the council.

In addition, Lindsay said the project will feature 148,805 square feet of planned retail space and 48,690 square feet of office space.

REPORT:

In a housing market still searching for a bottom, builders have pulled out all the stops to attract buyers.

Some have tried auctions, others through landscaping enticements or flooring upgrades, while others are offering pay the homeowner association fees for a year or more. One builder, Falk Development Inc., slashed prices at its San Jose project by almost 30 percent compared to 18 months ago.

According to the Ryness Report, which tracks new-home sales across all Bay Area counties, just 60 homes sold in 180 projects for the week ending Nov. 16, a drop of more than 25 percent compared to a year ago.