Sterling Square in Cupertino

The Sterling Square also know as Civic Park townhouse development by Taylor Woodrow Homes located just a few yards from Villagio development by Silverstone Communities company and across the street from Santa Clara county public library and Civic plaza. It's not entirely clear why Cupertino planning commission and town council decided to split the development of residential property on this land parcel among two home builders, but as a result the city would get two separated condo and townhouse complexes. Probably in case of single construction company the development would have relatively more unified style and would allow to have nice perks for example the pool or reduced HOA fee for future residents of Villagio and Sterling Square in Civic Park.

As all land in Santa Clara county, the construction site was traditionally used for agricultural functions as an apricot orchard prior to its development with medical offices forty years ago. The noise levels are much higher along De Anza Boulevard, and so homeowners in Sterling Square would be not affected by 37,000 vehicles passing development every day. Probably some buzz from walking and driving traffic expected on the west side of the property facing Cupertino public library during library work hours, but for some weird reasons the first sing "SOLD" appeared exactly on the part facing library. If I would home buyer one of the 51 townhouses in this community I prefer southern side of the complex facing newly constructed open space area with fountains. Of course in this case homeowner would lose the view of the green mountains, but at least it would be silence and Californian sun would not raise the room’s temperature to the greenhouse levels.

The development priced by Taylor Woodrow from $914K (for 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms townhouse) to $1,039K for (for 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms townhouse) and all units goes with own 2 car garage and plenty of stairways, basically it doesn’t matter, but imagine that you have walk those three levels every day up and down, up and down. The prices are reasonable for Cupertino real estate, where median home price of single family house was priced around $1,200,000 in 2006. According to recent sales for the same money in Cupertino you can buy only forty or fifty year old small house, but in one level. The HOA (home owners association) fee is $300 per month in the addition to the mortgage payment.

The Sterling Square townhouses are within the Cupertino Elementary School District and the Fremont Union High School District. Based on proximity to the complex location, students generated by the development would attend the same schools as student from previously described Villagio namely Eaton Elementary School, Lawson Middle School, and Cupertino High School.

As mentioned before the community located almost on De Anza Boulevard and it gives opportunity to reach highways 85 and 280 in a just a few minutes and usually during morning commute time the traffic exists only on highway 85 from Cupertino to Mountain View. The Albertsons store located almost in walking distance (not sure have many would walk) and the same applies to the following department stores Mervin’s and Targer and food stores like chinese Marina Food and organic Whole Foods.

Villagio in Cupertino

The Villagio condo-townhouse building is the rival of Sterling Square townhouses and both complexes located in the downtown of Cupertino adjusted to each other. The complex's builder Silverstone Communities firm prefers code name "homes" for all complex residences, but the building has four stores and not all unites have a garage, so I would say that condo or townhouse are more fair names for eighty community units. The exact numbers are sixty eight condos and twelve townhouses.

The good news that Villagio is not as apartment conversion projects, but the brand new condo development based on rezoned and demolished structure. In addition to residential the building has five retail spaces on the ground level on street side. From the same side happy homeowners may enjoy mountain views and charming six lines De Anza Boulevard.

The expected price for Villagio in Cupertino starts from $550,000 per one bedroom unit and the price of three bedroom townhouse with attached two cars garage without a doubt would be almost equal to median price for single-family homes in Santa Clara County ($760,000 in March 2006). It seems very expensive for inexperienced home buyer who wants to buy something in attendance area of award winning Cupertino School District, but asked price on the second hand market for one bedroom condo is around $515,000 in the nearest three years old Montebello Cupertino condo complex. As far as I know the Montebello Cupertino was constructed as Verona apartments and later converted by owner Prometheus Real Estate company almost immediately after building structure and I would say that location of Villagio is much, much better, although complex would not have a pool. The HOA (homeowners association fees) equals $410 per month and not tax deductible as usual.

As usual about education, the kids will go to the following schools: Eaton Elementary (API score - 955), Lawson middle (API 958) and for high school students Cupertino High (API 812). All of them located within walking distance from condos, but one probably would need a bike to go to Cupertino High school. May be you do not have any kids right now and not going to have them for some time, but think how other people do care about kids and how it would affect resale value of your real estate property.

The one of the last thing I would like to say about complex is, why do Silverstone Communities named condo complex as Villagio with one "g"? The correct Italian spelling of this word is Villaggio and it sound and looks more adorable for the city with almost Italian name.