zumatimes.com

Saratoga, California, is a city in Santa Clara County in the northern part of the state in the San Francisco Bay area. It is just west of San Jose in the Silicon Valley area and is home to a population of just over 30,000. Saratoga is a wealthy suburb home to many successful residents who work in the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley. The city’s 2007 estimated median annual household income was over $137,000, and Saratoga real estate is accordingly quite expensive, currently averaging more than $1 million.

So far in 2010, the Saratoga market for residential real estate has shown positive signs and seems to be improving overall. According to the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, the first quarter of 2010, which consists of the year’s first three months, saw 135 new listings of Saratoga homes for sale on top of current inventory of 122 homes, both of which were down from numbers from the first quarter of 2009, when both figures were over 170. Sales showed improvement as well, with 38 single-family homes sold in the first quarter versus only 21 homes sold last year. The average number of days homes spent on the market before closing improved slightly as well, standing at 95 days in the first three months of this year versus 103 at the same time last year. Even home prices showed improvement in Saratoga, a positive indicator for the real estate market’s health. Average prices were at $1.8 million, up from $1.4 million last year while the median price improved to $1.6 million from $1.2 million.

The condo market in Saratoga showed similar mostly positive trends to kick off 2010. There were 19 new condos listed in addition to an inventory of 15 condos already up for sale, down slightly from last year’s inventory of 22. Sales improved significantly, with eight sales this year in the first quarter versus just a single sale in the first quarter of 2009, and the number of days condos spent on the market before selling fell drastically as well, at just 27 days from 239 last year. The average price of a condo sold in Saratoga in the first quarter of this year was $675,375 while the median price was $633,500. Not many conclusions can be drawn against last year’s figure of $618,000, however, since it was based on the sale of only a single condo.