by Mary Pope-Handy | Jan 30, 2018 | Market Info
The Belwood of Los Gatos, Belgatos, Surmont, and contiguous neighborhoods in east Los Gatos saw strong appreciation in 2017. With a low amount of available real estate inventory and high buyer demand, properties listed under $2 million often saw multiple offers and good overbids. Over $2 million, the market was cooler, but still not too challenging to sell if done right.
Early 2017 was a bit sluggish, with homes taking longer to sell and recording under list price through February. These homes were priced on the higher end for homes in the area, and they were selling during the typically cooler winter months, both of which might have contributed to the slower turnover. By March the market was heating up again with the large majority selling above list price (likely multiple offers) in under a month through to the end of the year. The three that took longest to sell (from March through November) also sold below list price.
Below is the chart of all home sales in the Belwood & adjoining area listed on the multiple listing service for 2017 organised by date descending oldest to newest. DOM stands for “days on the market”. (There was one off-market or private sale of a 1400 SF house on Bacigalupi for $1,250,000 that is not included. It appears to have been a fixer upper.)
Most challenging to sell are the luxury tier properties offered at $3 million or more. In 2017, the house with the longest days on market was in this category. This is normal for the luxury market in east Los Gatos.
In summary, through most of the year there was high demand and quick turnover for homes in the Belwood area in moderate price points. These fast moving homes provide approximately 3-5 bedrooms and list in the price range of %1.5 to $2 million.
If we remove the luxury tier home, a profile of homes sold in this area in 2017 would be along these lines:
Average list price: $1,719,144
Average sale price: $1,758.263
Average square footage: 2316 SF of living space
Average age of home: 42 years
The last couple of months in 2017, prices began shooting up with the news of Google’s expansion into downtown San Jose. The ripples were felt through Willow Glen, Cambrian, and into Los Gatos. What sold for $1,750,000 in the middle of 2017 is likely to sell for significantly more in 2018.
If you’re interested in buying or selling a home in this beautiful corner of Los Gatos, please reach out to me and we can have a confidential and no-obligation conversation / consultation.
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 | Jan 23, 2008 | Belgatos, Belwood, Real Estate, Surmont
How is the real estate appreciation in our idyllic part of east Los Gatos, known locally as the Surmont, Belgatos area or Belwood of Los Gatos neighborhoods?
Since turnover is very low, inventory is always restricted and the demand tends to be strong. Recently I did a breakdown of the sales history of the last 5 years here (see the page under “homes info” on Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont sales history info on this site – link at the bottom of the homes info page or use the inserted link, above). Appreciation here is steady.
Here are a few highlights of the last 5 years of data:
(1) The price per square foot of the sold homes have risen a bit more than 71% since 2003. Here is the year by year breakdown:
2003 – $382/sf (6 houses sold)
2004 – $458/sf (18 houses sold)
2005 – $490/sf (25 houses sold)
2006 – $511/sf (9 houses sold)
2007 – $537/sf (10 houses sold)
(2) The average sales price of the closed sales rose approximately 63% since 2005. (It appears that this number is 68% for all of Los Gatos, which of course includes all types of houses, a different school district, homes with larger parcels, etc.)
(3) It appears that homes in this area near Belgatos Park have nearly doubled in value since 1999 (the year we bought our home). That ratio depends, of course, on some updating being done (so the home isn’t effectively “older” than it was in 1999) and can vary depending on the house. But as a rule of thumb, most properties here have almost doubled since 1999. This is true of most of Los Gatos.
This is a great part of Los Gatos for many reasons, finacial ones included!
