by Mary Pope-Handy | Feb 13, 2016 | Belwood, Homes for Sale
Looking for a turnkey home and yard with plenty of space? One with understated style and a comfortable elegance? The home at 127 Belhaven Drive in Belwood of Los Gatos is remodeled top to bottom and move-in ready! It will be on the Multiple Listing Service and ready to be seen on Monday, February 15th., and is offered at $1,650,000.
The house includes 2448 square foot of living space with 5 bedrooms + ground floor office (could be converted to bedroom if needed), 3 full baths (one on first floor), and all the living spaces you could want: living room, dining room, kitchen with oversized nook, separate family room, and a garge decked out as an entertainment center with a kid-friendly focus. Throughout the home there’s a perfect blending of traditionally loved items like hardwood floors, crown molding, baseboard, French doors, plantation shutters, built in cabinets together with much loved contemporary elements like skylights, dual pane windows, recessed and energy efficient LED lights, insulation, an encapsulated crawl space, and of course remodeled kitchen and baths.
With 10,760 square feet, the nearly level lot has room for everything. The yard has been professionally designed and landscaped and may well steal your heart! A big sandbox and amazing, custom built playhouse may well seal the deal! Extra storage in the side yard, a view of the hills from the expansive front porch – what more could you want?
All of this comes just 3-4 blocks from the side entrance of Belgatos Park. This charming home is part of the Belwood HOA, which provides a lovely cabaña, pool, and community events. The nearby Harwood Square Shopping Center includes a good sized Walgreens, Los Gatos, Pizza, Starbucks, and more.
Excellent schools, too: Noddin Elementary, Union Middle, and Leigh High.
Please stop by one of our open house events:
- Wednesday, February 17th 9:30am to 12:30pm (broker open but also public open house)
- Saturday, February 20th 1:30 to 4pm
- Sunday, February 21st, 1:30 to 4pm
Disclosures will be online soon. Offers due Wednesday, Febrary 24th by 11am please.
Want more details? Please see the lengthy list of features here:
http://www.valleyofheartsdelight.com/Property/127-Belhaven-Drive-Los-Gatos-California
Or see the Virtual Tour here : http://www.tourfactory.com/1468742
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Aug 7, 2015 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Real Estate, Surmont
Of the homes first listed for sale in the Belwood of Los Gatos, Belgatos, or Surmont subdivisions in 2015 so far, only one did not selll (it was pulled off after a month, which is about the time when a price reduction would likely be getting discussed). One other is currently under contract (contingencies are in place) and five homes have been sold and closed.
Overall, houses in this neighborhood have gone pending fairly quickly, with the average days on market being a brisk 9 for the five closed sales. Homes sold so far are all selling over list price, and the average amount over is about 3% ($38,000).
(There was one other closing on Bacigalupi in January from a sale in December that I did not include since I was looking for sales that were ratified in 2015, but that home had 2448 SF and closed at $1,525,000 fyi.)
The odds are good that you could sell a home in this area without too much trouble in most cases. In every market, though, there are some homes that don’t sell or do not sell quickly. To learn more about that situation, please visit my Valley of Heart’s Delight blog and read this article:
http://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/why-didnt-my-san-jose-home-sell/
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jun 9, 2015 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Real Estate, Surmont
Today I’m working on an article for another blog of mine on the topic of saving for a down payment and residential real estate appreciation in Silicon Valley. Long story short, right now, home buyers cannot save as fast as the home prices are going up. For some, the saving effort is to get to 20% down or more. For others, the goal is to buy all cash. In both cases, though, the danger is getting priced out of the market while the would-be home owner is putting away money. For people who wanted to buy 2 years ago but decided to wait and save, that now means either not buying at all or buying in less nice home or area than they were targeting.
This is certainly true for home buyers wanting to get into Belwood of Los Gatos and nearby. Let’s look at our corner of Los Gatos and take a sampling of what has happened since 2000 (a “boom year”) for a typical 2400 square foot house on a typical 9,000 to appx 10,000 square foot lot (in Belwood, Belgatos or Surmont). For this, we will consider homes sold in 2000 and homes sold within the last 12 months. I ran the numbers this afternoon on MLS Listings, our local multiple listing service provider.
1-1-2000 through 12-31-2000: a home of about 2400 SF on a 9,000 – 10,000 SF lot averaged a sale price of $860,000 (prices ranging from a low of $750,000 to a high of $950,000). A 25% down payment would have been $215,000 and the loan amount would have been $645,000, using that average number. Many buyers would have purchased with 20% down, and some with 30% or more, though.
Fast forward to today and the last 12 months leading up to today – approximately 15 years later.
6-9-2014 through 6-9-2015: same sized home and lot averaged a sale price of $1,512,000 (prices ranging from a low of $1,350,000 to a high of $1,660,000). This does not include pending sales, of course – just those which have closed escrow.
Home prices have almost doubled in that time. (more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Mar 1, 2015 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Real Estate, Surmont
This afternoon I ran the recent listings and sales in the Belwood of Los Gatos, Belgatos, Surmont and nearby areas. These contiguous east Los Gatos neighborhoods have extremely low turnover, so not surprisingly, there are few sales!!
It should be noted that larger homes on larger lots usually sell for far less on a price per square foot basis – so it’s not really fair to compare a house on an acre with one sitting on a 10,000 sf lot. Additionally, homes in the $2 million plus range are a very different creature than those closer to $1 million in terms of multiple offers and the sale price to list price ratio. In some cases, though, even these higher end homes get multiple offers and sell for more than the asking price.
Finally, the type in the image below is a little small, but if you click on it, you will get a larger, more readable version.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 28, 2014 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Real Estate, Surmont
Real estate sales this year in the east Los Gatos areas including Surmont, Belgatos, Belwood of Los Gatos and homes close to Harwood but within the Los Gatos town boundaries have been small in number due to the extraordinarily tight inventory levels. Below are the closed and pending sales as reported in the MLS for this calendar year so far.
Of the nine closed sales, 5 sold for more than list price – most or all of these were multiple offer situations. The other four had a variety of situations: one was bank owned, one needed several hundred thousand in finishing work (there was no kitchen, there were no bathrooms, etc.). The one on Alerche sold “off market” and “off mls”.
Interested in buying or selling a home in or near this pretty corner of Los Gatos? Please give me a call or send me an email today!
by Mary Pope-Handy | Nov 11, 2013 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Surmont
Home sales in our corner of east Los Gatos have been fairly brisk overall. Homes under $2 million and on quiet, interior roads pretty much fly off the market. Properties on streets with a lot of traffic or properties offered at more than $2 million are much, much harder to sell here. Here’s a look at the 2013 year to date home sales in our area so far. The one on Alerche was my listing. (Please click on the image below to see larger version.)
Interested in knowing what your home’s probable market value is with today’s market? Please give me a call or write me an email and I’ll be very happy to preview your home and provide you that information with no obligation: 408 204-7673 mary (at) popehandy.com. I’m a 20 year real estate veteran in Los Gatos, a top producer, and a Belwood resident since 1999.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 23, 2013 | Belgatos, Belwood, Market Info, Surmont
Houses in the Belwood, Belgatos, Surmont and nearby areas priced under $1,500,000 are selling at a very healthy rate, many with multiple offers and significant overbids. In the last year or so, there have been 18 sales of single family homes in this area (see map at right). Of those, 16 were on the open market of of those 16, 13 sold for more than list price.
Two properties sold “off market”, or not on the multiple listing service with a real estate professional involved. One of them was a sale from a landlord to tenants already in the property. The other was an off market short sale.
As of this writing, there are 2 pending sales in the neighborhood, both between $1.2 million and $1.5 million.
Additionally, there are 3 properties available for purchase. They range in price from $2.4 million and $2.8 million, and all have been on the market for more than a month.
Below, please have a look at what has sold – street names rather than precise addresses are used to provide privacy to the owners.
Interested in selling your east Los Gatos home? Please call or email me for a confidential, no obligation consultation today.
Mary Pope-Handy mary@popehandy.com 408 204-7673
