San Jose Open House This Sat / Sun 1 - 4!

27 Camille Cir Unit 12, San Jose, CA 3BR/2.5BA Single Family offered at $575,000 Year Built Sq Footage Bedrooms BathroomsFloors Parking Lot Size 1991 1,710 3 2.5 2 Unspecified 1,320 sq ft description Fabulous short sale opportunity! Lovely large 3 bedroom/2.5 bath town home with additional large downstairs bonus room not included in square footage of living space. Wood floors, separate family room, granite counters in kitchen, balcony, large master suite, attached 2 car garage. Great complex in convenient location! see additional photos below additional photos                                   Contact info:   Marcy Moyer Keller Williams - Palo Alto (650) 619-9285 Equal Opportunity Housing

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca. Specialist in Short Sales and Trust and Probate Sales

Goodbye to The American Musical Theatre of San Jose

It is very sad for me to see a theatre close, especially when it's one that has been a part of my life. In the case of The American Musical Theatre of San Jose, we're losing a landmark that has been a part of San Jose life since 1935. The theatre has been a cultural icon of Silicon Valley since before the tech boom--it started way back when Silicon Valley was little more than a collection of orchards with a struggling community in the middle. What does it mean when a city lets go of something this defining? Something so integral to its identity?

AMT started as CLO (Civic Light Opera), and then it evolved into the San Jose Musical Theatre. It wasn't known as the American Musical theatre until 1995, when the theatre celebrated its 60th anniversary. Originally it was a strictly local company, but began hiring big stars to bring in a wider audience during the 80's. In the early 90's I saw Sally Struthers play Miss Hannigan in a wonderful production of "Annie", which also starred a bevy of local children (many of whom were friends with my sons) playing the adorable orphans. This theatre was the area's major employer of the abundant local musical theatre talent.

In 2002, AMT changed from a local theatre company to a national tour company. Instead of mounting local productions, must of the musicals were national tours of Broadway shows. Many local theatre people and audience members (myself included), were angry, but the theare felt it could get a wider audience by changing the model.

Unfortunately they were wrong, and when they faced a financial disaster in trying to mount a tour of Disney's Tarzan, AMT had to close. I am very sorry for the theatre and the community. I can only hope that maybe this will leave an opening for another local, professional musical theatre company to emerge again. 

San Jose High-Rises Keep Sales Up in Santa Clara County

If you haven't checked out this article from a few days ago, published in Mercury News, you really should--it bears good news for buyers, sellers, and people just interested in an indicator from the real estate front about how the economy is going downtown San Jose. While new home sales in September were pretty dismal throughout California, one pocket in Santa Clara showed an opposite trend.  In downtown San Jose and parts of Palo Alto new condo sales were up nearly 150% from the previous year. 

Some of the condos were high-rise, expensive properties, and almost all of them attracted a specific kind of buyer--tech workers, empty nesters, people who'd been renting downtown for a while. There's an interesting question lurking behind this boom in condo sales--since the burst of the housing bubble, are condos in prime downtown areas simply a safer investment? Do people feel more comfortable purchasing condos over houses these days, or is this a matter of coincidence? What do you think?

Click here for the full story, written by Sue McAllister.

As if we needed more proof that San Jose is expensive...

Forbes decided to give it to us, in the form of an informative little article detailing some of this country's most highbrow neighborhoods, where residents pay astronomical amounts for the privilege of owning their properties instead of renting them. 

These are the few pockets where homeowners are still willing to take a chance on the future appreciation of their homes. First place mentioned? 

Ladies and Gentlemen, your very own San Jose, CA. 

Particularly the neighborhood of Willow Glen, where residents pay the city's highest prices relative to what they could pay to rent similar properties in the same area. Chances are, the people paying crazy mortgages in Willow Glen won't lose out. San Jose, like most of the Silicon Valley area, has weathered the foreclosure crisis very well and has insurance in the form of tech jobs that should bolster prices in the years to come. 

Still, seeing how much money owners are willing to pay to hold onto their properties in Willow Glen is an eye opener. In America's Most Overpriced Zip Codes, Matt Woolsey writes-- 

"When you compare mortgage payments to the value of a similar home on the rental market, the price to buy is 26.1 times higher, one of the biggest differences in the country."

But it could be worse. It could be TriBeCa, or Boston's Chinatown. Other similar neighborhoods include downtown Seattle, Mission Hills San Diego, and Coronado, Phoenix.