Selling a home in Willow Glen

The list price does the work

measured: 24 months

In seven of Willow Glen’s nine neighborhoods the typical sale closed at asking or within 0.4% of it (all home types), and 56% of its house sales closed over asking, against 62% across San Jose. Fairglen (2.3% over, with 72% of its 99 sales over asking) and Dry Creek & Cherry Ave (1.6% over) were the exceptions. With little bidding past the list price, the list price has to be right on day one: we price from your neighborhood’s record and the closest recent sales.

Over asking, neighborhood by neighborhood

Flood zones by neighborhood

measured: R-1 lots

The three San Jose neighborhoods with the most single-family (R-1) lots in a FEMA high-risk flood zone are all in Willow Glen: Willow Glen South & Lincoln Glen (648 lots, 29%), River Glen & The Willows (516, 27%) and North Willow Glen & Gardner (329, 22%), nearly all in shallow-flooding zone AO. Downtown Willow Glen has 312 (21%), and Canoas Garden & Willow Creek the highest share, 220 of 381 lots (58%), mostly in zone AH. Fairglen and Willow Glen West have none.

If the house itself is in an A or V zone, lenders on federally backed mortgages require flood insurance, so we order a flood zone determination for the address before launch and give buyers the answer up front.

Flood and fire zones by neighborhood

Fairglen Eichlers

records and our sales

The Fairglen Additions, 218 Eichlers from 1959–61, were listed on the National Register in 2019. A National Register listing doesn’t by itself stop a private owner from remodeling, but it can bring added review when a project needs a discretionary city approval, so buyers who plan changes will ask. Since 2012 we’ve listed 18 homes in our Fairglen neighborhood guide, more than in any other San Jose neighborhood.

Fairglen · Selling an Eichler

Larger lots in the west

measured: R-1 lots

Dry Creek & Cherry Ave and Willow Glen West have Willow Glen’s largest median lots (8,330 and 8,180 sq ft, against 6,410 across San Jose), its largest median houses (2,522 and 2,280 sq ft) and its highest median prices ($2.61M and $2.7M). There, buyers weigh the lot along with the house, so we put the lot’s size and shape in front of them from the first day.

Lots, flood and fire zones by neighborhood

Measure E and the $2.3 million line

city rule

Willow Glen’s median house sold for $2.04M. In Willow Glen West ($2.7M) and Dry Creek & Cherry Ave ($2.61M) the median house sold above the $2.3 million line, and in Fairglen ($2.15M), River Glen & The Willows ($2.1M) and Willow Glen South & Lincoln Glen ($2M) it sold within $300K of it. Above the line, Measure E adds 0.75% of the whole price up to $5 million, on top of San Jose’s $3.30 and the county’s $1.10 per $1,000: a sale at exactly $2,300,000 owes $10,120 in transfer tax, and at $2,300,001, $27,372.

By local custom the seller pays the county tax and the buyer and seller split the city taxes; all of it is negotiable, and the purchase contract decides. If your price could land near the line, we plan for it before you list.

San Jose transfer tax and Measure E