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Rick Bonetti | Alain Pinel Realtors | Saratoga, CA | 408-857-8800

Do you know what our kids are doing?

This entire week, the students of Saratoga’s Redwood Middle School are celebrating Unity in Community. Tomorrow March 11, 2010, there will be a Heal The World Outdoor Assembly featuring the RMS Honor Chorus and the students’ Unity In Community chain.  All Redwood Middle School homerooms will gather on the upper field to link together their UIC chain links.  The entire school will also sing “Heal the World” with the RMS Honor Chorus.

Among the homeroom projects are:

• Collecting used laptops for a learning center in South Africa, In Africa Shoes
• Collecting blankets, towels and animal food for the Humane Society and San Jose Animal Shelter
• Diaper drive for Sacred Heart Community Services
• Collecting recyclable bottles and cans for the American Red Cross: Save The Bay
• Making gifts for seniors at Our Lady of Fatima
• School wide book drive for Friends of Saratoga Libraries
• Collecting reading books for Developments in Literacy
• Wii for Haiti during lunch One Dollar For Life: Haiti Fund
• Natural Bridges beach clean up for Surfrider Foundation
• Raising funds for Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Ronald McDonald House, The Nature Conservancy, Dorobo Fund for Tanzania and more…

Great work Redwood!

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The map above shows various neighborhoods in Saratoga, CA. 

As a Realtor it seems to me that the logical process in home buying is to first choose the community you like and can afford, then narrow the search to select the most desirable neighborhoods (constrained by affordability) and then find the specific home of your dreams that is for sale.

So what what defines a neighborhood and distinguishes one neighborhood from another?

1. Scale - Everyone lives in a neighborhood, but a resident’s sense of it differs dramatically depending if you are in an urban, suburban or rural setting.  In urban areas, neighborhoods are probably focused on a street or even a portion of the street that gives it focus.  A real estate website called StreetAdvisor has a slogan “your street, your voice”.  In suburban areas, neighborhoods are often subdivisions or tracts.  In rural areas your nearest neighbor may be miles away.
2. Lot Size – related to scale is the prevailing size of parcels in an area, which in turn is related to it’s history.  Whether streets are in a grid or curvilinear determine the feel of a neighborhood.
3. History– When a neighborhood was first developed is reflected in the street patterns and lot sizes.  Modes of transportation prevalent during that era determined the importance of the automobile or mass transit.  Alleys were prevalent before garages  came to dominate the street scene.  Nodes of higher intensity residential development grew up along major transportation lines.  If there were large agricultural ownerships converted to residential subdivisions, the homes tend to be more uniform unless the lots were sold to individuals.  The land value of some Saratoga neighborhoods has become so valuable because of school scores that they are in transition with newer much larger homes replacing older much smaller homes.
4. Architecture – Related to history is the prevailing style of construction of the era.  Victorian, craftsman and various historic revival architectural expressions tend to be clustered in some neighborhoods and not in others.  House size is an obvious reflection of status of a neighborhood.  Newer homes tend to have more open floor plans and many new Saratoga homes have basements.
5. Landscaping – The type and maturity of trees and other landscaping features create a unique feel for many neighborhoods.  Some have uniform street trees; others are noted for their variety or relative lack of attractive landscaping.  The root system of heritage oaks constrain construction, but are also emblems of stature.
6.  Schools – It used to be that the ideal neighborhood was defined in terms of walking distance to a public elementary school.  While it is now the exception that children walk to school unaccompanied, proximity of playmates is still a factor in defining neighborhoods.  School scores are extremely important, but in many school districts, physical proximity does not automatically insure enrollment. Private schools have also  loosened the ties that once bound neighborhoods together.
7. Boundaries – natural features (rivers, topography, etc.), man-made improvements (roads, railroads, etc.) and political boundaries have a lot to do with the identity of neighborhoods.  Neighborhoods are often defined as much by their edges (perimeter walls, border and median landscaping, etc.) as they are by their cores.
8. Access– some neighborhoods have well defined entry points with walls and signs.  Other neighborhoods are defined by their limited access, whether it is a cul-de-sac or a guard access gate.
9. Associations – Community associations and common areas and recreational amenities define certain neighborhood as distinct from others.  Rules and regulations in the form of CC& R’s have a varying impact depending if they collect dues.  Neighborhood Watch organization reflects practical informal associations of neighbors.
10. Proximity – Some dominate features, whether they be a hill or an institution can create neighborhood identity by mere proximity.
11. Social Cohesion– While Realtors and others are prohibited from discriminatory practices regarding ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or other sociological factors they may have obvious physical manifestations to even the casual observer.   Bars on windows, graffiti, the brand, age and repair of automobiles and general tidiness may be reflections of social status or safety/crime.  The clustering of certain types of business and their signage may reflect the social cohesion or character of neighborhoods. Either presence or absence may be important to homebuyers.
12. Custom – Some neighborhoods have adopted, colloquial names coined by Realtors such as the “Golden Triangle”.

Ultimately all the above 12 factors plus the subjective evaluation of many individual homebuyers and homesellers is what determine property values in neighborhoods.  Subjective factors such as beauty, style and status are less easy to quantify, but very real.

Websites such as Neighborhood Scout identify only 6 relatively large areas within the Saratoga, CA community – these are more like aggregates of neighborhoods and in my opinion are less fine grained than homebuyers perceive. 

I used my background as a Realtor and geographer to define a greater number (31) of distinct Saratoga  neighborhoods according to the criteria above.   Call me if you are looking for a Saratoga native and a neighborhood expert.  Subscribe to my blog if you find it interesting and helpful.  Spread the word.

Rick Bonetti | Alain PInel Realtors | Saratoga, CA | 408-857-8800

There are 12 new listings in Saratoga this week. There are 116 residential MLS listings available with an average price of $2,241,933.

Green building is here to stay!  So if you’re thinking of buying a home in Saratoga, Los Gatos or Monte Sereno or you are thinking of remodeling your existing residence, you need to know what elements of a “green home”* are most cost effective.  There are also federal incentives for you to act during 2010.

If you’re looking to buy green, beware – there are a lot of conflicting claims and options out there. That’s one of the reasons why the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is emerging as the “recognized standard for measuring building sustainability,” according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. A LEED certification recognizes that a construction project or building uses environmentally friendly building practices. You can find out more by visiting www.nrdc.org.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy created the Energy Star program in 1992, which identifies 50 product categories that will help save energy costs.

• Today, more than 75% of American households recognize the ENERGY STAR label!
• In 2009 alone, ENERGY STAR helped Americans save nearly $17 billion on their utility bills
• Since 2000, about 3 billion ENERGY STAR labeled products have been sold

Save money (30% of your costs up to $1,500) with federal tax credits,  good through December 31, 2010 for certain energy efficient improvements (HVAC, insulation, roofs, water heaters, windows and  doors) to your principal residence.  There are no upper limits and you have until 2016 to get tax credits for geothermal heat pumps, small wind turbines and solar energy systems – this includes new construction.

* Not to be confused with greenhouses for the elderly I wrote about in an earlier blog post.

If you would like to receive updates of my blog posts, please subscribe:

Rick Bonetti | Alain Pinel Realtors | Saratoga, CA | 408-857-8800