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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!
Where is Silicon Valley?
It’s not a highly defined area and is not really a “valley” per se. It mostly resides in Santa Clara County, which is found at the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, and inland from Santa Cruz and the Pacific Ocean in California – separated by the Santa Cruz Mountains (referred to locally as “the hill”). Other areas include the San Francisco Peninsula (the bay side of San Mateo County), the east bay communities of Fremont, Hayward, and Union City, and also the Santa Cruz County city of Scotts Valley.
The coastal range keeps the fog mostly at bay, but our Silicon Valley climate is still primarily dominated by the Pacific. In addition to the Santa Clara Valley or County area, Silicon Valley creeps over the hill into Scotts Valley, up the San Francisco Peninsula to include Menlo Park, a bit up the East Bay into Fremont and Hayward, and generally pretty much anywhere within 45 minutes of San Jose.
The biggest city in Silicon Valley is San Jose. It is a sprawling city inching from the east foothills to the Santa Cruz Mountains and it includes many distinct districts, and it includes about 1 million residents. San Jose is the 10th largest city in the U.S.
On the north and east there are Berryessa, North Valley, Alum Rock, Silver Creek and Evergreen.
In the downtown area or “central San Jose” we find many more neighborhoods, including the historic and vibrant Japantown, the residential old Vendome neighborhood, Naglee Park, the Rosegarden and Willow Glen areas, to name just a few!
Along the south and west sides of San Jose, we find South San Jose, Blossom Valley (also sometimes called Blossom Hill), the Santa Teresa district (running along the Santa Teresa foothills, Cambrian Park (sometimes also called Cambrian Village), Almaden Valley, and West San Jose.
Additionally, the valley has smaller cities and towns too: Los Gatos, Monte Sereno (the smallest city in the county), Saratoga, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountian View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Campbell, Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Each one has its own history and personality. Almaden, for instance, was once the largest Mercury or Quicksilver mine in the world. Hence the San Jose paper is “Mercury News“.
While there’s plenty of information online about larger areas (districts of San Jose, or the cities and towns of Silicon Valley), these neighborhoods within the districts are not written about as much on the web. So please contact me by phone or email if you are looking for specific information on these areas.
This Silicon Valley Real Estate Website is provided to you by me, Mary Pope-Handy, a veteran Realtor, with Sereno Group in Los Gatos. No website, though, can give you precise advice or an expert opinion (not even this one!), so there are plenty of ways to contact me. I dislike pushy sales people as much as you do and always put my client’s best interests first.
The Valley of Heart’s Delight Blog – latest posts
- Saratoga, CA, Real Estate Market Update - This is a fairly comprehensive article on the Saratoga real estate market that will include the live statistics from Altos Research for listed properties (not closed) in Saratoga CA 95070, the closed sale data from the RE Report for last month in Saratoga 95070, and the numbers I crunched for Saratoga - overall and by price point and high school district, since Saratoga has 3 different high school districts, each with an impact on home values.
- Santa Clara County Real Estate Market - Santa Clara County Real Estate Market update
- Mountain View CA real estate market trends and statistics - How's the Mountain View real estate market? This is one of the very hottest areas within Silicon Valley and is home to a myriad of high tech companies and in a stone's throw of others. With a charming and walkable downtown, easy access to CalTrain and a vibrant atmosphere conducive to both work and play, it is no wonder that people relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area or Silicon Valley place Mountain View squarely in their target.
- Los Gatos Real Estate Market Trends and Statistics - The Los Gatos real estate market is varied from one price point or school district to the next, but over all, this is a fairly stable period and properties continue to sell at an average of over 100% of the list price. Here are the current numbers, per my Los Gatos real estate report (click on the link for full information). The Los Gatos Mountains are a distinctly different market and as such are covered in a separate market update, updated less frequently than here, which shows live Altos charts for that area.
- Updating the Campbell Real Estate Market - How is the Campbell real estate market? Here are the numbers, but what do those numbers mean? The sales vs list price remains over 100% though it has dropped some in the last months, and while the average days on market has increased it remains under a month. This indicates that Campbell is still in a strong seller's market, despite a growing inventory. Further down in this article, we'll utilize the graphs from Altos Research, which uses list prices, and check out the trends in pricing by quartile in this zip code (meaning 4 groups based on the pricing tier from least to most expensive). Campbell condominiums and townhomes will be considered as well. And finally, a list of homes for sale in Campbell will be found at the bottom of the post.
- Almaden Valley Real Estate Market Conditions & Homes for Sale - The Almaden Valley real estate market is still in a stable sellers market. Winter brought about a steep drop in inventory of Almaden Valley homes for sale. There must be either a lot more inventory, or significantly less demand, before we see anything close to a balanced market. With summer nearing, the Almaden Valley market is noticing very minor seasonal softening as more properties come on the market. Despite this, homes are selling very quickly and at a higher sales to list price ratio than they did a month ago.
- The Monte Sereno Real Estate Market - The Monte Sereno Real Estate Market - an update on the housing market's sales, trends and statistics
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, CIPS, ABR, SRES
CA DRE # 01153805
Sereno Group
Los Gatos Office
214 Los Gatos Saratoga Rd
Los Gatos, CA 95030
408 335-1400 office
408 204-7673 cell