San Jose Real Estate * Santa Clara County * Richard Gonzalez * Real Estate Broker * Realty World Powerhouse Brokers

I uploaded the latest sales data to youtube. Please take a moment to watch this three minute video.

January 2010 sales data for Santa Clara County.

SOFA Restaurant

Eulipia is located in the South First Street Area(SOFA) and directly across from Eulipia is a beautiful new high rise condo and loft development called Three Sixty Residences. I passed by Eulipia many times since the downtown revitalization began thirty years ago, I even remember having dinner a few years back and for that reason I decided to give it another try.

As I previewed the menu from the window I noticed Eulipia’s California Cuisine had a large variety of options including steak, seafood, pasta. when I walked in I was immediately seated and served a warm basket of bread which by the way was the way I like it; Crunchy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. The atmosphere was dark with candles on the tables. Perfect for a first date or dinner before heading to the theatre across the street at the California Theatre. There is also a large bar if you decide to to have drinks and appetizers.

Dinner Menu

Starters range from $8-$12  including a Ahi Tuna Tarter that looked great. I overheard another customer state to the manager that the the Ahi was especially good. Most of the main courses are in the $20 – $30 range.

Lately I tend to gravitate to fish but was tempted by the “10 oz Blackened Rib-Eye Steak” but ultimately gravitated to the “Atlantic Salmon Roasted with Cashew Nuts”  marinated in Dijon mustard, with season vegetables and lemon butter.

It was excellent to say the least and the portion was a larger than the usual California Cuisine size.

Eulipia’s Legacy

After the meal I had a conversation with Mark McCandless who stated that Eulipia’s legacy has been 30 years in the making. An incredible stretch by any restaurant. The owners are Steve and Mike Borkenhagen who by the way also have another restaurant in Los Gatos called Valerianos.

My take away

Downtown continues to make strides in the revitalization and through the entire process Eulipia continues to be a perfect example of a romantic restaurant in a city that continues to grow.

Eulipia Menu

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Entree Price: $20 – $30

Address:

374 S. 1st St

San Jose, Ca. 95113

(408) 280-6161

Eulipia Website

Santa Clara County sales are down but so is the inventory reported DQNews.com. The article published today states that January 2010 sales are down from December 2009 but those are normal levels for this time of year.

Limited inventory equals less sales activity

The article also attributes this to various factors including tax credit, financing and lack of inventory. I know this already but in our case  our clients are experiencing very limited inventory as the main factor.

Trend should continue in 2010

While sales have fallen in recent months we are going to continue to see this trend in the Silicon Valley mostly because of HAFA and as the demand for housing continues to remain high. Another contributing factor is that sellers not in foreclosure who would normally consider selling are staying put as the economy continues to recover.

The chart below shows in increase in sales volume for Santa Clara County and an improvement in the Median sales price.

	Sales Volume			Median Price
County	Jan-09	Jan-10	%Chng	Jan-09	Jan-10	%Chng
Alameda	994	936	-5.8%	$300,000	$341,000	13.7%
Contra Costa	1,333	1,078	-19.1%	$220,000	$257,250	16.9%
Marin	122	153	25.4%	$525,000	$535,000	1.9%
Napa	78	87	11.5%	$370,000	$350,000	-5.4%
Santa Clara	1,037	1,137	9.6%	$400,000	$451,000	12.8%
San Francisco	229	311	35.8%	$562,000	$629,000	11.9%
San Mateo	273	355	30.0%	$489,500	$579,000	18.3%
Solano	560	462	-17.5%	$192,500	$201,000	4.4%
Sonoma	424	334	-21.2%	$299,750	$325,000	8.4%
Bay Area	5,050	4,853	-3.9%	$300,000	$350,000	16.7

source dqnews.com

Click here to read the DQNews article

Procrastinators assemble!

Here are a few of the Valentine’s activities happening this weekend at Santana Row for those of you who have waited to the last minute to make plans with your significant other.

Dining at Santana Row is always fun.

Click here to see all Valentine’s dining specials at the Row

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Burke Williams is having a spa promotion that should sit well with anyone who loves a little TLC.

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Pinkberry has a promotion though 2/19. I personally havent tried Pinkberry but there is always a line out the door. Share one with your honey.

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Swing Your Sweetheart this Sat, Feb 13th from 3-5pm in Park Valencia! Professional instructors from Cheryl Burke Studio will be teaching a complimentary dance class. While you’re there, enter to win a Romance Package including a night stay at Hotel Valencia, dinner for two on The Row & complimentary dance classes from Cheryl Burke Dance!

Until November of 2009 Bank of America / Countrywide short sales were difficult to navigate and a communication challenge to say the least. Our average time to receive an approval ranged from four to six months. As a result Bank of America created a partnership with equator.com thus reducing the short sale approval timeline from 6 months to 45 days.  For this reason and because there continues to be confusion with the process I decided to provide 3 steps to successfully initiate a B of A short sale and navigate through this new system.

One small task at a time

Step 1 . Listing agent must Register on equator.com  once your REALTOR has informed B or A that you are short selling your home. B of A will then assign the short sale to your REALTOR in the equator.com system. Your REALTOR will then upload a laundry list of documents one task at a time. Tasks are the basic process initiated by B of A to ask for the necessary documents needed to start the short sale. Your REALTOR will be asked to upload the following:

• Purchase contract
• MLS information
• Buyer Pre-qualification including social security numbers
• Picture of home
• Authorization from seller to allow REALTOR to talk to B of A

Step 2. Seller needs to notify B of A that they want to start a short sale. equator.com will provide a password to the seller and the seller must have an email address of their own to access the system.

Step 3. Seller must upload independent of each other (one task at a time) the following documents.

• 2 yrs tax returns
• 2 months bank statements
• Pay stubs for the last 30 days
• Hardship letter
• Financial statement

Challenges:

• There are still many people who don’t have an email address or are not comfortable uploading documents into the system.
• Sellers will get blocked out of the system if they have too many failed attempts at accessing with an incorrect password(it happens all the time).
• Sellers must respond as quickly as possible when given tasks. Failure to do so will slow the process down and may stall the process until requested documents are uploaded.

Goal:

Once B of A receives the information they will begin processing your short sale. 2010 is primarily expected to be a short sale year as banks begin to develop new processes to handle the paperwork involved.  Knowing what to expect and being prepared is key when navigating the B of A short sale system.