An empty retail office space in the center of the Rivermark Plaza is a great snapshot of the changing Silicon Valley real estate market. This vacant office space, like many others throughout the South Bay, was once the location for a busy real estate office catering to the local Rivermark community.
Last week on the Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog The Sixth Sense rip
, I gave a brief introduction to Rivermark, one of Santa Clara’s newer master planned communities. This past year, we’ve had the opportunity to help several clients buy, sell, or manage rental properties within the Rivermark Community. I thought it might be useful to let you understand the motivation behind each of my clients…
Scenario #1 – Clients relocating to improve their lives: At the time, my clients had just gotten married and were living in a tri-level townhouse in Fremont. Their current townhouse was not located in an area convenient for shopping and local transportation, and additionally they wanted to find someplace that was closer to both of their work locations and something with much larger square footage in case they decided to start a family. Eventually, we were able to find a much larger and newer home in the Rivermark Santa Clara community surrounded by many of their friends and family. I recently heard the good news that they are expecting their first child one later this year.
Scenario #2 – Clients moving out of Rivermark because due to marketing timing factors: This family of five decided that it was time to sell their Rivermark home. There has been a great deal appreciation in the home values in Rivermark in the past five years and given the current possibility of unemployment and unrest in the market place, my clients felt that this would be a good time to sell and move to a location closer to the church.
A good point to make for someone looking to buy in the Rivermark community is that the school system has great potential. Even though the relatively new school compared to other Silicon Valley schools, Don Callejon has scored an slightly above average on their first Academic Performance Index (API), CA’s most comprehensive measure of school performance. Many residents would expect more room for improvement since it seems Don Callejon is experiencing what many new schools in Silicon Valley would go through when first being established. Residents would only expect that the API will continue to increase and improve with years to come.
Scenraio #3 – Taking advantage of this buyer’s market to upgrade to a larger Rivermark home:
With 11 homes currently on the market, about half of which are in short sale
status or nearing foreclosure, and only 2 are currently in escrow, it’s a great time to buy in Rivermark. Of two recent couples we worked with, one couple decided to rent out their home and move to a larger one while the other opted to put their home on the market.
I hope there three recent scenarios provide some insight on why people are moving to the Rivermark community in today’s market. For more information, statistics, or a list of short sales and foreclosures in Rivermark, please contact me Drive-By Chronicles: Sidewayz move
