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About the Valley of Heart’s Delight

“The Valley of Heart’s Delight” was the way in which Santa Clara County, home to San Jose and now Silicon Valley, was once described.  For those of us who grew up climbing trees in the orchards, and who grow a few fruit trees in their own yards, it still is the Valley of Heart’s Delight.  This valley was once famous for wheat, later for grapevines, citrus, nuts, cherry trees, and fruits of all kinds. Hints of the valley’s past are everywhere to be found.

On this website, we will focus on Los Gatos and nearby areas such as Saratoga, Campbell, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, the San Jose areas of Almaden, Cambrian, and Willow Glen, and adjacent communities throughout Santa Clara County.

Please also visit The Valley of Hearts Delight Blog for the latest market reports, area information, photos, tips, bits of history and more for Silicon Valley, San Jose, Los Gatos, Cambrian Park, Almaden Valley, Monte Sereno and Saratoga real estate and homes for sale!

The Valley of Heart’s Delight Blog – latest posts

• What can you buy in Cambrian for about $1.25 million? - Silicon Valley home prices are sky high. The average price of homes selling in Santa Clara County is about 1.25 million. Cambrian offers good schools, a reasonable commute to places like Apple in Cupertino, and a nice location near Los Gatos and Campbell with lower real estate prices. What can you buy in Cambrian for about $1.25 million?
• Why do sellers care if the offer has a loan or is all cash? - Buyers who are getting slammed out of the Silicon Valley real estate market due to low inventory and multiple offers are extremely frustrated. In many cases, they write offer after offer, and each time not only are their bids rejected, but they never even get a counter offer.
• Low appraisal - When the real estate market is overheated, prices tend to rise steeply, and homes are more likely to have a problem with a low appraisal. That is where we find ourselves today in Silicon Valley as properties are selling fast, with multiple offers, few contingencies, and frequently steep overbids with resulting appraisal challenges.   In […]
• Los Gatos Mountains 95033 Real Estate Market Trends & Statistics - The real estate market in the Los Gatos Mountains is very different from the “in town” Los Gatos housing market and really deserves its own separate treatment. The mountain area includes areas both in Santa Clara County and also Santa Cruz County. Both sides may have a Los Gatos mailing address with the 95033 zip […]
• The Monte Sereno Real Estate Market - The Monte Sereno Real Estate Market - an update on the housing market's sales, trends and statistics
• Why do you keep losing out on multiple offers? - You may have heard that the Silicon Valley real estate market is softer now than it was a year ago. That's true - at least for most of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and nearby. In many cases there are now half as many offers as there were then. But it's still a hot seller's market, and that means that often there are multiple offers, overbids, and sales with no contingencies. For my last few listings - which have been in Saratoga, Los Gatos, the Cambrian area of San Jose and the Campbell area of San Jose - there's been a consistent "spread" of offers. If there were 6 offers, it might look like this:
• Appraisal value does not equal market value - An appraisal value is an opinion of real estate value  by a licensed appraiser, employed when a house or condo is under contract or sale pending with a mortgage, so that the lender does not over-invest. In other words, when an appraisal is used in escrow, it is to protect the bank which is lending […]