How to find a rental home in Silicon Valley
Finding a rental home in Silicon Valley can be challenging. Where to look? Can a Realtor help you? (Not very much.)
In many areas of the U.S., real estate agents actively work the rental market. In those areas, owners are willing to pay a commission for the service, and houses and condos are listed in the local multiple listing service.
Not in Silicon Valley, though. Instead, it’s a land of “for rent by owner”. A few properties may be on the MLS (see link below), but hardly any. Far less than 5%.
Related reading:
Why is it so hard to find a rental home in Silicon Valley now?
Finding Rental Housing in San Jose, Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley
Waterfront homes in Silicon Valley: are there any concerns?
Sometimes people relocating to Silicon Valley tell me that they’d like to move to an area with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Most of Silicon Valley is inland, though, separated from the ocean by the coastal mountains.
For those truly set on having a view of the Pacific, home can be found in the Santa Cruz area with lovely ocean and Monterey Bay views. The compromise will likely be a long commute over Highway 17. Or similarly, ocean lovers may settle close to Half Moon Bay or Pescadero, but will have to slog over the coastal hills on Hwy 35 each day to get to the Peninsula. (Some lucky souls may find employment in Scotts Valley or along the coast, but most of the jobs are not in these places.) If a faraway ocean view will work, perhaps making the Santa Cruz Mountains home may be the ideal fit.
If you want to live along the waterfront within Silicon Valley, there really are not a lot of neighborhoods from which to choose. Most of the water views involve being near the San Francisco Bay. There are a few rivers, creeks, ponds and lakes to be found as well, but enjoying lovely water views up close is not the easiest criteria to fill. Along the bay, though, it often comes down to Foster City and Redwood Shores, which we’ll discuss next. Continue reading
Where to find historic homes in the San Jose and Silicon Valley area?
Sometimes newcomers to Silicon Valley strongly prefer older homes, such as Victorians, Craftsman, or other distinctive architectural styles, preferably surrounded by homes of the same vintage. Most of the valley is filled with ranch style housing, but there are quite a few neighborhoods which enjoy historic home which exude tons of charm. Where to find them?
San Jose’s historic homes
San Jose is a large city (10th largest in the United States, almost 1 million residents) and very spread out with a wide diversity of neighborhoods. Here are a few to consider for classic, older properties:
In central San Jose there are quite a few areas to check out:
(1) Downtown San Jose generally, but within that area
Naglee Park
Japantown
Vendome areas
(2) the Shasta-Hanchett neighborhood
(3) the Rosegarden area (close to Shasta Hanchett, both in “central San Jose”)
(4) Alum Rock in east San Jose – up into the foothills there are lovely, older Spanish style homes
(5) Willow Glen – close to downtown SJ, features all sorts of architectural styes, from mid-century modern to Spanish, Victorian, Tudor – you name it. Within Willow Glen, The Palm Haven neighborhood has the added charm of so many palm trees (very visible when flying into the San Jose airport)
There are many more scattered throughout San Jose and nearby suburbs, even in places like Cambrian Park or Almaden (away from the old mercury mining area), where it seems all the houses were built from the 1950s to the 1980s. When we see a hundred year old house in this area, it’s very likely that it used to be the house on a large ranch, orchard or farm.
Los Gatos
The town of Los Gatos is far smaller than neighboring San Jose, but has a great assortment of historic districts that are beautifully maintained and tastefully updated, most of them right in downtown. I’ve written about these on my Live in Los Gatos blog, so here are a few links to those neighborhood posts:
Broadway – first subdivision in Los Gatos
Palo Alto
Palo Alto enjoys some of the most beautiful, gracious older houses in Silicon Valley, particularly the Professorville and Old Palo Alto areas, but others too. Drive the neighborhoods between Stanford University (El Camino Real) and 101 and you’ll find lots of historic homes to love! The challenge is affordability, as these are the most expensive historic homes in the region.
There are many more lovely older homes throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and nearby. If you enjoy these classic beauties, watch for a series of spring home tours which become available beginning in around March each year. Most of them will cost a few dollars, with proceeds going to a worthy local charity. If you’re interested in purchasing an historic property, visit my “search by map” page and enter a “built before” year and then scroll around the valley to see what is available.
The Santa Clara County Real Estate Market
The Silicon Valley real estate market is spread out over a few counties, primarily Santa Clara County but also much of San Mateo County and part of Alameda and Santa Cruz Counties. Santa Clara County is home to about 1.8 million residents, more than half of them in the big city of San Jose. The high tech companies such as Cisco, Apple, Google and more are spread out around the valley, and each neighborhood has a very different set of housing market conditions. Even so, we’ll take a broad view of the county today to give some general indicators on what you might expect when moving here.
As a whole, home prices in Santa Clara are rising due to a dire scarcity of listing inventory. On average, houses sold in December were overbid and the sales price to list price ratio was about 102%. Here are the numbers at a glance:
| Trends At a Glance | Dec 2012 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $682,500 | $685,000 (-0.4%) | $530,000 (+28.8%) |
| Average Price | $908,873 | $885,921 (+2.6%) | $714,562 (+27.2%) |
| No. of Sales | 899 | 903 (-0.4%) | 903 (-0.4%) |
| Pending Properties | 980 | 1,500 (-34.7%) | 1,396 (-29.8%) |
| Foreclosures Sold | 25 | 34 (-26.5%) | 112 (-77.7%) |
| Short Sales Sold | 154 | 138 (+11.6%) | 229 (-32.8%) |
| Active Listings | 534 | 782 (-31.7%) | 2345 (-77.2%) |
| Active Foreclosures | 22 | 27 (-18.5%) | 173 (-87.3%) |
| Active Short Sales | 39 | 52 (-25.0%) | 980 (-96.0%) |
| Sales Price vs. List Price | 102.6% | 102.3% (+0.3%) | 98.7% (+3.9%) |
| Days on Market | 36 | 32 (+11.3%) | 63 (-42.8%) |
Though there was a slight slippage in values from the prior month’s median sales prices, the average price was up 2.6%. More dramatically, though, prices were up 27-28% from the year before! Foreclosures and short sales are way down. Inventory is critically low, off 77% from a year earlier.
It is a very deep seller’s market in Santa Clara County. Some areas, such as Cupertino, are very difficult for buyers right now. Cupertino’s prices are already past the last peak pricing and have only about 2 weeks of inventory.
| Trends At a Glance | Dec 2012 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $1,343,880 | $1,325,000 (+1.4%) | $982,500 (+36.8%) |
| Average Price | $1,304,180 | $1,373,820 (-5.1%) | $1,085,210 (+20.2%) |
| No. of Sales | 26 | 27 (-3.7%) | 24 (+8.3%) |
| Pending Properties | 18 | 23 (-21.7%) | 13 (+38.5%) |
| Foreclosures Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Short Sales Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active Listings | 13 | 26 (-50.0%) | 31 (-58.1%) |
| Active Foreclosures | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active Short Sales | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 4 (-100.0%) |
| Sales Price vs. List Price | 102.9% | 104.4% (-1.4%) | 96.4% (+6.7%) |
| Days on Market | 31 | 33 (-5.8%) | 52 (-40.7%) |
To get the full report with much more data and information for all areas within Santa Clara County, please see www.popehandy.rereport.com.
How to Decide Where to Live in Silicon Valley or Santa Clara County
How do you choose where you’d like to live in Silicon Valley? Especially if you’re relocating here from out of the area, this can be a huge question. Most Santa Clara County home buyers have strong preferences for low crime, good schools, and pleasant looking & quiet neighborhoods.
My clients often ask me to compare for them areas which are somewhat similar, such as Los Gatos & Los Altos. Off the top of my head, I can give general answers, such as these: Compared to Los Gatos, Los Altos is a more expensive (perhaps 20 or 25% more?), has a very slightly smaller population, is a little more spread out, has slightly milder weather and is overall “quieter” in terms of the downtown night life. Los Altos is more convenient if you want to go to Palo Alto or San Francisco. Los Gatos is more convenient if you like to visit Santa Cruz, Monterey and the coast. Los Gatos is more mixed in terms of housing types (it still has many beautiful historic districts with nicely renovated Victorian homes, but also newer construction). Both are “nice looking” but Los Gatos has more varied terrain as it is nestled into the Santa Cruz Mountains. Both enjoy pleasant neighborhoods, good schools, lower than normal crime and community involvement.
That’s the kind of “ballpark” info I can tell people about various areas of the Santa Clara Valley, whether it’s comparing one part of San Jose to another (Cambrian Park vs Almaden Valley vs Willow Glen) or one city to another (Cupertino vs Saratoga). I can give general info on schools….
To read more, please see the rest of the article on the Valley of Hearts Delight blog:
http://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/how-to-choose-where-to-live-in-silicon-valley-or-santa-clara-county/
Why is it so hard to find a rental home in Silicon Valley now?
At the moment, many people relocating to Silicon Valley are reporting that it’s harder to rent a home than to buy one. What’s the reason for that?
Two things are happening that create pressure:
- There are a lot of companies hiring, and many high tech people, especially, are moving to Silicon Valley
- People who have lost homes in foreclosure, or who had to do a short sale to avoid it, are not able to buy for at least a few years. They may double up with family or friends for awhile but eventually do rent.
With demand increasing like crazy, rents are increasing like crazy too. It’s the old tale of supply and demand: more demand than supply exists in the rental housing market today.
Just watch out for the scams! If a price sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I wrote about this not too long ago, please have a look:
Finding a place to rent – how do people locate one in Santa Clara County? Where can you find properties to lease or rent? I have a list of resources on my Valley of Hearts Delight blog – please click on the following link.
Finding Rental Housing in San Jose, Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley
What about a broker or agent? Can a Realtor help you to find a rental home in Silicon Valley? Most of the time, a real estate sales person will not be of much help in finding rental properties, and that’s because they aren’t usually listed in the MLS (and the MLS is the way in which we are paid).
Sometimes, though, a rental is listed on our Multiple Listing Service (MLS). You can check it out directly at www.MLSListings.com – just select rental under “type”. The vast majority of rentals are online via Craigslist, though, and a real estate agent has no role in that type of rental property. Just beware of the scams, mentioned above, and always google the address of the property that looks interesting to see if it’s for sale also. If it is listed as for sale, the odds are that it’s not really for rent.
On occasion, members of the real estate community will know of a “courtesy rental” property, meaning that a client wants to rent it out but not necessarily put it on Craigslist or the MLS. Instead, it’s word of mouth. You do not need to call every real estate professional in town to ask if they have any courtesy rentals. Instead, turn to your trusted Realtor and ask him or her to inquire for you. Most agents are very happy to send out the request within their company and to top agents or managers of others nearby to ask on your behalf (but it’s no good if 10 Realtors are all circulating the same request, so please don’t give in to temptation and ask everyone for this favor.)