The Cupertino real estate market, part of the larger Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley housing markets, showed strong signs of improvement in the month of May despite a property valuation report reflecting the weakness of last year. According to a June 17, 2010 article from the San Jose Mercury News, “In the latest sign that Silicon Valley's housing market is slowly heading toward normal, the median price of houses sold in Santa Clara County jumped last month to the highest level since before the stock market collapse of late 2008, driven by the sale of more higher-end homes and fewer lower-priced, post-foreclosure deals. The median price of the previously owned, single-family homes that changed hands last month was $585,000, up 23 percent from May 2009 and 6.4 percent from April 2010, according to figures released Thursday by MDA DataQuick. That was the highest since August 2008, when the county's median house price was $592,750. The steep rise in prices is not a sign that the values of individual homes are regaining their boom-time levels. Instead, it means that the mix of homes sold has changed significantly from last year, when lower-priced, post-foreclosure homes were more prevalent.”
However, San Jose properties, including Saratoga homes for sale, marked a sharp decline in value from the last fiscal year. According to a July 1, 2010 article from the Morgan Hill Times, “The total assessed value of properties in Santa Clara County made an unprecedented decline this year, with Morgan Hill real estate and Gilroy real estate seeing the largest drop in property values than any other city in the county. Based on property assessments announced by the Santa Clara County Office of the Tax Assessor Wednesday, the total assessment roll in Morgan Hill decreased from last year's value of about $6.6 billion, to about $6.2 billion this year - a 6.1 percent decline, according to assessor Larry Stone. The assessment roll in Gilroy dropped by the same percentage, from about $6.1 billion to $5.7 billion. Countywide, the total decline in property values was 2.43 percent, or a drop of $7.4 billion. The county's total assessment roll this year is $296.47 billion, Stone said.”