Jim Guido's Blog

San Jose, 95124 Summary

The median sales price for homes in ZIP code 95124 for Aug 11 to Oct 11 was $532,000. This represents a decline of 7.4%, or $42,500, compared to the prior quarter and a decrease of 13.1% compared to the prior year. Sales prices have depreciated 25.6% over the last 5 years in 95124, San Jose. The median sales price of $532,000 for 95124 is 34.68% higher than the median sales price for San Jose CA. Average listing price for homes on Trulia in ZIP code 95124 was $613,364 for the week ending Nov 09, which was unchanged compared to the prior week and a decline of 2.5%, or $15,688, compared to the week ending Oct 19. Average price per square foot for homes in 95124 was $349 in the most recent quarter, which is 19.52% higher than the average price per square foot for homes in San Jose.

95124, San Jose Recently Sold Homes

95124, San Jose Recently Sold Homes

It appears there’s no easy fix to the housing problem, but many South Bay experts say one of the solutions is a short sale the sale of the home for less than what is owed.

Short sales provide a fresh start for a market clogged with underwater homes. They also avoid a foreclosure, which can lower the value of neighboring houses and damage the homeowner’s credit. They also don’t sit empty for months.

But short sales are fiendishly difficult, experts say, which makes solving the housing crisis all that much harder. They are one of the most complex transactions in real estate, if not the most.

More than 40 percent of short sales fail to close according to a recent survey by the California Association of Realtors. DataQuick estimates that there were about 15,839 short sales in California in the first quarter of this year, which suggests another 10,000 failed to close. In April, about 18 percent of all home sales in Santa Clara County were short sales, according to an estimate by DataQuick which is down from 20 percent a year ago. In San Mateo, about 14 percent of all sales were short sales in in April.

A frequent stumbling block is the second mortgage, which often has no underlying equity.

Some help on the state and federal level is on the way, but it’s a complex problem involving lenders, loan servicers and investors around the globe who hold mortgage-backed securities.

The California Association of Realtors has launched a campaign to simplify the short sale process, which the association says could increase the number of sales while reducing foreclosures. That could “move our economy closer to recovery,” the association says.

CAR developed a new application that realtors can use to file complaints about short sale problems with mortgages in which Fannie Mae was involved. MLS Listings in Sunnyvale is the first multiple listing service in California to implement it. The system should help reduce the delays of nine months or more to complete a short sale, said Jim Harrison, chief executive officer of MLS Listings.

In Washington, Congress is looking at a bill (HR 1498) that would speed up the process of short-selling a house. And the Obama administration has an initiative, Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program, which it hopes will make short sales easier.

The Silicon Valley median price for homes has dropped form a high of $805,000 in summer of 2007. But you have to really look a lot more closely to see if your area or neighborhood has dropped a lot or just a little. Some areas have been hit harder than others. Its very critical when you want to find out what’s going on with prices in your neighborhood to get the best and most accurate info you can.