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Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

We at Alain Pinel Realtors have been releasing high quality videos that give buyers a feel for different areas. Today, we released the Silicon Valley video. Take a look.

If you are looking for luxury real estate all along the Peninsula and Silicon Valley in areas such as Los Altos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Mountain View and other areas, please consider me.

Los Altos Hills Real Estate Highest Price in Santa Clara County

February 2, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments
Los Altos Hills Real Estate Highest Price in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County real estate showed gains across the board in numbers very similar to San Mateo County.  The key number to note is that the average price of a home was up in 2012 by 12% to an average of $839,000.  The biggest jump in prices came from the city of Monte Sereno where home prices were up 18% to an average of $2.031,000.  Los Altos Hills took the prize for highest average sale price with a whopping $3,077,000.

 

Santa Clara County

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 11,094 11,974 8%
Average Price ($000) $747 $839 12%
Average DOM 72 51 -29%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

 

Los Altos

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 307 365 19%
Average Price ($000) $1,778 $1,979 11%
Average DOM 39 31 -21%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

Los Altos Hills

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 100 112 12%
Average Price ($000) $2,694 $3,077 14%
Average DOM 84 81 -4%
Months of Inventory 0.3 0.2 -33%

Los Gatos

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 331 374 13%
Average Price ($000) $1,386 $1,539 11%
Average DOM 77 52 -32%
Months of Inventory 0.2 0.1 -50%

Los Gatos Mountains

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 88 101 15%
Average Price ($000) $664 $766 15%
Average DOM 141 115 -18%
Months of Inventory 0.4 0.2 -50%

Monte Sereno

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 25 32 28%
Average Price ($000) $1,723 $2,031 18%
Average DOM 104 91 -13%
Months of Inventory 0.3 0.1 -67%

Mountain View

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 283 324 14%
Average Price ($000) $1,003 $1,128 13%
Average DOM 38 22 -42%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

 

Palo Alto

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 451 475 5%
Average Price ($000) $1,758 $2,019 15%
Average DOM 32 23 -28%
Months of Inventory 0.0 0.0 #DIV/0!

 

Saratoga

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 274 376 37%
Average Price ($000) $1,650 $1,770 7%
Average DOM 69 66 -4%
Months of Inventory 0.2 0.1 -50%

 

The Rich Are Defaulting On Mortgages At Alarming Rate

The Rich Are Defaulting On Mortgages At Alarming Rate

Don’t look around at your neighbors too closely, but the well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.

The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like the many luxury real estate towns we service along the Peninsula. Menlo Park luxury real estate, Atherton luxury real estate, it’s all in the same boat.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population according to David Streitfeld.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. Homes priced over a million dollars are considered luxury real estate in many areas.

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.

Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.

“The rich are different: they are more ruthless,” said Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist.

As a recent example, five luxury properties in Los Altos were scheduled for foreclosure auctions in a recent issue of The Los Altos Town Crier, the weekly newspaper where local legal notices are posted. Four have unpaid mortgage debt of more than $1 million, with the highest amount $2.8 million.

Not so long ago, said Chris Redden, the paper’s advertising services director, “it was a surprise if we had one foreclosure a month.”

In Las Vegas, Ken Lowman, a longtime agent for luxury properties, said four of the 11 sales he brokered in June were distressed properties.

“I’ve never seen the wealthy hit like this before,” Mr. Lowman said. “They made their plans based on the best of all possible scenarios — that their incomes would continue to grow, that real estate would never drop. Not many had a plan B.”

The defaulting owners, he said, often remain as long as they can. “They’re in denial,” he said.

Here in Los Altos, where the median home price of $1.5 million makes it one of the most exclusive towns in the country, several houses scheduled for auction were still occupied this week. The people who answered the door were reluctant to explain their circumstances in any detail.

At one house, where the lender was owed $1.3 million, there was a couch out front wrapped in plastic. A woman said she and her husband had lost their jobs and were moving in with relatives. At another house, the family said they were renters. A third family, whose mortgage is $1.6 million, said they would be moving this weekend.

At a vacant house with a pool, where the lender was seeking $1.27 million, a raft and a water gun lay abandoned on the entryway floor.

Lenders are fearful that many of the 11 million or so homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will walk away from them, especially if the real estate market begins to weaken again. The so-called strategic defaults have become a matter of intense debate in recent months.

The delinquency rate on investment homes where the original mortgage was more than $1 million is now 23 percent. For cheaper investment homes, it is about 10 percent.

With second homes, the delinquency rate for both types of owners was rising in concert until the stock market crashed in September 2008. That sent the percentage of troubled million-dollar loans spiraling up much faster than the smaller loans.

“Those with high net worth have other resources to lean on if they get in trouble,” said Mr. Khater, the analyst. “If they’re going delinquent faster than anyone else, that tells me they are doing so willingly.”

Willingly, but not necessarily publicly. The rapper Chamillionaire is a plain-talking exception. He recently walked away from a $2 million house he bought in Houston in 2006.

“I just decided to let it go, give it back to the bank,” he told the celebrity gossip TV show “TMZ.” “I just didn’t feel like it was a good investment.”

The rich and successful often treat their homes as business investments and make decisions on their personal items in a similar way that they would for their businesses.  Bottom line decisions without the emotion that other homeowners may have towards their residences.  A default is a strategic default, not a failure.

“They may be less susceptible to the shame and fear-mongering used by the government and the mortgage banking industry to keep underwater homeowners from acting in their financial best interest,” Mr. White said.

The CoreLogic data measures serious delinquencies, which means the borrower has missed at least three payments in a row. At that point, lenders traditionally file a notice of default and the house enters the official foreclosure process.

In the current environment, however, notices of default are down for all types of loans as lenders work with owners in various modification programs. Even so, owners in some of the more expensive neighborhoods in and around San Francisco are beginning to head for the exit, according to data compiled by MDA DataQuick.

In Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and the most expensive neighborhood in adjoining Mountain View, defaults in the first five months of this year edged up approximately 10% over 2009 and over 400% from 2008.

The East Bay suburb of Orinda had eight notices of default for million-dollar properties, up from five in the same period last year. On Nob Hill in San Francisco, there were four, up from one. The Marina neighborhood had four, up from two.

The vast majority of owners in these upscale communities are still paying the mortgage, of course. But they appear to be cutting back in other ways. Many of the luxury real estate areas have downtown areas that are filled with empty storefronts, typically unusual in well to do areas.  Discretionary spending of the rich is affecting the little guys, who of course have mortgages to pay, thus the vicious circle.

But this is still Silicon Valley, where failure can always be considered a prelude to success.

In the middle of a workday, one troubled homeowner here leaned over his laptop at the kitchen table, trying to maneuver his way out from under his debt and figure out the next big thing.

His five-bedroom house, drained of hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity over the last 13 years, is scheduled for auction July 20. Nine months ago, after his latest business (he has had several) failed in what he called “the global meltdown,” the man, a technology entrepreneur, said he quit making his $9,000 monthly payments.

“I’m going to be downsizing,” he said.

The man spoke on the condition of anonymity because, he said, he did not want his current problems to interfere with his coming reinvention. “I’m a businessman,” he explained. “I have to be upbeat.”

Things seem to be turning a bit as some areas are showing nice price increases and we all have to stay upbeat and fight to keep on top, irregardless of whether you are looking to buy or sell off your luxury real estate.  If things don’t look great, just look around at your neighborhood, you’re not alone.

My Contact Information

Gary Kurtz
949.565.5201
gkurtz@homgroup.com
BRE# 01710776

Kathy Kurtz
714.394.2676
kathyk213@aol.com
BRE# 01876966

HOM Sotheby's International Realty
1200 Newport Center Drive, # 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660

949.565.5201 (cell)
949.478.7769 (office)
650.796.5507 (Silicon Valley #)

Contact me now with any questions:
gkurtz@homgroup.com

Kurtz Real Estate Group




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Real Estate Insider Video Show

Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

April 3, 2013

Alain Pinel Realtors Silicon Valley

We at Alain Pinel Realtors have been releasing high quality videos that give buyers a feel for different areas. Today, we released the Silicon Valley video. Take a look. If you are looking for luxury real estate all along the Peninsula and Silicon Valley in areas such as Los Altos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, […]

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