Controlled burn near Morgan Hill creates smokey skies in Silicon Valley
Yesterday Jim and I attended the Los Gatos Creekside Sports Park kickoff celebration (will nearly touch Vasona Lake County Park and is just off of University Avenue) and as we often do, drove east on Blossom Hill Road to get home. Straight ahead of us, hanging over south San Jose and Santa Teresa and extending north, was a huge and darkened cloud. Smoke? Smog? Rainclouds?
We drove up Harwood Road and to the top of Harwood Court to get a better view of it. It did look like it started in south San Jose or further south than that. Some hikers were trekking up the challenging hill and we asked them if they knew if it were a fire. “Can’t smell it,” one replied “so it must be smog – just awful!” Smog, though, tends to dissipate from side to side and not hang together so tightly as what we saw.
View from Harwood Court in Los Gatos of the smokey skies created by the Cal Fire "controlled burn" in south county
We flipped on KLIV, the San Jose based AM radio station (channel 1590) that best covers local news & traffic, and learned right away that it was a controlled burn. This morning I googled the fire and learned that it’s a 2 day burn at part of Henry Coe State Park, overseen by Cal Fire, with more scheduled for today.
The Morgan Hill Times reports that “The prescribed burn is part of the ‘Western Zone Complex’ controlled fire in the remote area of the park. The fire will take place on the Middle Ridge Trail off Hobbs Road, about eight miles northeast of Morgan Hill, according to Calfire fire prevention specialist Chris Morgan. “
Halloween in Surmont, Belgatos and Belwood of Los Gatos
"Westhill Cemetery"
It’s mid-October and little ghosties, Jack-o-Lanterns, grave stones, witches, over sized spider webs and other trappings of Halloween have begun to appear in the Surmont, Belgatos and Belwood neighborhoods of east Los Gatos. There’s no shortage of the “Halloween Spirit” – so to speak – in this corner of town! It sure is fun to see.
What’s your favorite haunt in the hood?
If you’d like to share your photos of ultra cool Halloween decorating, I’d be very happy to post them here! Whether it’s effects that show up on October 1st or October 31st, we’d love to share them with the neighbors!
As the month goes on, I will add images of local streets, yards and homes where the decor is noteworthy.
Here’s one of my very favorites – a great little ghost western style town up the street from Jim & me.
Great halloween decor on Bacigalupi Drive
And another one with some serious spider webbing:
Belwood spider webs for Halloween
And yet another with quite a few ghosts – this one on Westhill Drive’s Belgatos area.
Westhill Drive ghosties, goblins and webs
Meanwhile, if your not-so-haunted house has children who’d like to participate in a pumpkin decorating contest, I’d like to invite you and them to dive into the project asap. My real estate brokerage, Sereno Group, is hosting its annual pumpkin decorating (not carving) contest and the DEADline is this Friday, October 21 at 5pm.
Read all about the contest on my Live in Los Gatos blog. Hope to see loads of the spooky, cute, funny, and outrageous creations next week!
Cardboard Hill in Belgatos Park: Remember to Clean Up After You Play!
“Cardboard Hill” is a much beloved spot in Belgatos Park, but sometimes it looks more like “big trash hill” when the cardboard sledders neglect to clean up after themselves. Pack it in, pack it out! This is true for all the wonderful parks and trails in Los Gatos.
Here are a few shots from a couple days ago – typical fun on a sunny September afternoon.
About a half dozen kids gather to slide down “cardboard hill” at Belgatos Park in Los Gatos.
What goes up with some work comes down with some fun at Cardboard Hill.
Sliding down “cardboard hill” at Belgatos Park in the Belwood neighborhood of Los Gatos. Continue reading
Meeting for Belwood Gateway between Harwood and Bacigalupi to further discuss speed hump and its location
Two speed bumps for Belwood Gateway were planned to be installed after the August Los Gatos Town Council Meeting (which followed a May 11th traffic calming meeting at the Belwood Cabaña and a vote of the affected neighbors).
The first speed hump, which was not contested, will be placed fairly close to the community pool in the area between Belblossom and Bacigalupi on Belwood Gateway. It appears that this has the resounding endorsement of the folks who live nearby.
The second speed hump did not seem to enjoy the same unanimous approval (despite the vote). The next one, along the stretch of Belwood Gateway between Bacigalupi Drive and Harwood Road, left some Belwood of Los Gatos homeowners feeling that the process wasn’t done right, that the voting should have been teased out a little differently, and that perhaps a better resolution to the speeding and volume of traffic could be found. That resulted in another meeting, which happened earlier this evening.
Todd Capurso, the Los Gatos Director of Parks and Public Works, is very good about meeting with residents to discuss concerns, ideas, feedback etc. and this was no exception. Residents who live along the block of Belwood Gateway where the second speed bump or hump was to go (about 15 households in all) were notified of a meeting that took place tonight at 7pm in front of one of the homes. (I was notified so that I could keep the rest of the community updated via this and my other blog, LiveInLosGatos.com. Jim and Bella, our aging black lab, walked me over and then after meeting a few neighbors, continued on their walk while I stayed back to see what was decided.)
Only about half of the households had members show up for this informal discussion. One neighbor who was in favor of the traffic calming speed hump asked a couple of times why the meeting was even called since the vote was clearly in favor of this measure.
Home for rent on Belwood Lane
UPDATE: TAKEN!!
I’ll leave this info up as “market info” for those wondering what rents may be going for in the area. Most of Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont consists of houses on 10,000 or more SF lots so these will obviously be more expensive but this provides part of the range just the same. For people moving to the area from outside of Silicon Valley, it’s helpful information.
My friend Grace Keng of ReMax has a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 850 square foot duplex for rent on Belwood Lane. It is offered at $1650 per month. If interested, please contact Grace at grace (at) gracekeng.com or phone her at (408) 799-8887.
How’s the Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont real estate market?
How’s the local real estate market in east Los Gatos? Homes here are in a very active price point for Los Gatos generally, as well as for Los Gatos with Union schools. (You can also view homes for sale in our area here on BelwoodOfLosGatos.com under the “real estate” tab – or just use this link.)
Homes for sale, pending and sold/closed in the last 30 days in Belwood, Surmont and Belgatos neighborhoods:
Right now there are 5 houses for sale in Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont. Of them there are 4 “regular sale” properties available and one short sale in the neighborhood (2 on Westhill, 1 on Belhaven, 1 on Belblossom and the short sale on Belwood Gateway). One home, which was very affordably listed at $875,000, is sale pending. Additionally, a bank owned property or REO (real estate owned by the bank) is under contract.
How long have they been listed for sale? The two on Westhill just came on the market within the last few days. Two of the five have been available for about 60-70 days.
You can read the MLS info on each of them on my ValleyOfHeartsDelight blog.
How are prices? Four neighborhood homes have closed escrow in the last 30 days, with prices ranging from $975,000 to just under 1.2 million.
Months supply of inventory: To figure the months of inventory, you simply divide the actives by the solds (from the last month). We have 5 available and 4 which have closed – so 1.25 months of inventory. That looks pretty good but if you live in the area you know that these things tend to come in waves and just a month ago we had “infinite” months of inventory. So don’t get over excited about this and price your home too high – if houses are priced appropriately, they are selling. If not, they are sitting.
Below are live charts and graphs from Altos research for the 95032 zip code. They will automatically update themselves each week, so even if this post appears “old”, the info below will always be current!
Charts and graphs by Altos Research using active listings
| 90-day stats for Single Family properties in LOS GATOS, CA95032 as of May 11, 2012 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Median List Price: | $1,321,269 | Average List Price: | $1,874,790 |
| Total Inventory: | 65 | Price per Square Foot: | $614 |
| Average Home Size: | 2,174 | Median Lot Size: | 10,587 |
| Average # Beds: | 3.83 | Average # Baths: | 3.09 |
| Homes Absorbed: | 6 | Newly Listed: | 7 |
| Days on Market: | 110 | Average Age: | 47 |
Continue reading
Traffic Calming Measures in Belwood – An Update
Summer was busy and I managed to miss the end result of the voting done in June over the speed bumps (or humps) and the traffic triangle that was proposed at Harwood and Belwood Gateway. This week I emailed Todd Capurso the Los Gatos Director of Parks & Public Works, and he got me updated in no time. In case any of you neighbors also blinked and missed the upshot, I thought I’d post it here.
This subject was addressed at the town council meeting on August 15th and the results of the voting were written up in advance. Read all about it here:
http://losgatos.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=874&meta_id=93994
Todd tells me that “the residents on the block between Harwood and Bacigalupi have requested that I come back and meet with them because some of them do not want the speed-hump that was proposed (and passed) for their block” so there will be some ongoing discussion there about whether to add it or not. Stay tuned!
Many thanks to Todd Capurso for updating me on this topic.
Remember: kids under 3 need plastic covers in the community pool!
The Belwood pool got shut down for a few hours on August 23rd due to an accident which resulted in fecal matter getting into the pool. You know the drill – everyone out, need to remove what can be removed physically and then the pool has to get a strong chemical treatment. The latter is bad for bacteria, and also too hard on our skin so the result is the pool not being able to be used for several hours.
Kids under 3, toddlers and babies need to wear plastic covers in the pool – no exceptions. Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the year and a plastic cover been in use, no shut down would have occurred.
Is that east Los Gatos home nicely remodeled or simply flipped?
Want to buy a house in the Los Gatos neighborhoods of Belwood, Belgatos or Surmont? There are a few things you should know about properties that look “turnkey”, especially as the market heats up or inventory more available.
Home sellers who quickly improve houses for a fast profit, rather than for enjoying the house for their own use, often cut corners. Whether it’s owners doing a quick makeover or investors remodeling or improving select items, beware! Some of these properties give the impression of being “perfect” but in fact may only have been cleaned up in the most visible areas.
Here are some questions for you to ask or investigate when looking at homes for sale in east Los Gatos, particularly near the foothills :
- Owners or sellers who prepare the home for the maximum return on investment will probably add fresh paint & carpet (or pull up the carpet to expose the hardwood floors), swap out light fixtures, door and drawer or cabinet hardware, and tidy the front landscaping. But what about expensive but less seen areas such as
- the electrical system
- furnace (heater)
- water heater
- roof, gutters & downspouts
- drainage system (often needed, seldom there)
- back yard landscaping
- the foundation (always a potential issue in our east Los Gatos neighborhood if drainage hasn’t been properly addressed)
- insulation
- plumbing – has the home been re-piped, or are the old galvanized steel pipes still in the walls and under the house, ready to give up the ghost?
- condition of retaining walls, if any
- condition of concrete or hardscape
- large trees – have they been trimmed, or are they an expense which will fall on you?
- Is this an investment property (purchased by investors at a foreclosure auction or as a distress sale)? Or is it a trustee sale where the family or friends inheriting the property are fixing it up for sale (almost like a flipped house)?
- If it’s a house being sold by investors who’ve fixed it up, how experienced are they? Some clients of mine purchased an out-of-area house from first time investors. The kitchen remodel was made such that a full size fridge wouldn’t fit. Fail!(Some trustee sales are in a similar category as first time investors – this isn’t something they have experience with, most likely. They may make costly mistakes by either over-improving the home for sale or not fixing the right things. They may or may not be local and have a true sense of market value, too, so may set themselves up with unrealistic expectations.)
- Were there pre-sale inspections? If so, did the owners or investors do the Section 1 work from the termite report and the health & safety issues called out in the home inspection? The home inspection (not the termite or pest) should flag any major issues with the foundation, electrical, mechanical etc. systems in the home. If there’s no home inspection, prepare for surprises in these older homes.
- In Surmont, Belgatos, Belwood, and all of the east Los Gatos, Cambrian and Almaden hillside areas, water and drainage is an issue, as mentioned above regarding foundations. Left unchecked, water seeps into the crawl spaces under the houses and can create real havoc as our clay soil expands and pushes on the foundation. So look at the downspouts and see if they simply dump the water at the base of the house (which you will see most of the time – but it’s not a good idea, usually), or did the owner take the time and spend the money to handle drainage issues well? How’s the grading? Soil and landscaping should slope away from the house so that any water coming down will run away rather than seep into the crawlspace.
Browse neighborhood homes for sale online on this site. When you visit in person, bring a notepad and jot down concerns or questions. It is so easy to fall in love with remodeling that’s been done that it may be easy to miss the expensive items not easily seen that may have been ignored.
Need a good, local Realtor? Call or email me. I’ve been in real estate a long time (since early 1993), am very accomplished and recently was named “best real estate agent in Silicon Valley” by readers of the San Jose Mercury News. I’m also a Belwood resident and I know the area and its values well.
Belwood of Los Gatos July 4th Celebration
The Belwood of Los Gatos community is hosting its annual Independence Day or 4th of July celebration and the details are announced on the Belwood HOA website. (Quick note: A parade begins at Mulberry School (220 Belgatos Road) at 12:15. The neighborhood festivities run from 1 – 5 at the cabaña. Read all about it on the Belwood HOA site!)
Please note that since the weather is really hot and dry, the risk of fire danger is high right now. A sign at Belgatos Park warns that viewing fireworks is strictly prohibited.
Got Facebook? If so, you might consider “liking” the Belwood Cabaña page on Facebook. They are great at keeping people updated on neighborhood events (this is not my page, btw). That’s where I first learned that the holiday is being celebrated in traditional fashion.
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