COMMUNITIES | Portola Valley

In Portola Valley, named for the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola, oak-studded meadows open onto vistas of San Francisco Bay and the unspoiled Coast Range. The area's first settlement was the logging town of Searsville, founded in the nineteenth century. Farming and cattle ranching were

the primary industries until the 1920's. After World War II, the valley began to be developed, typically with modest, ranch-style homes on large lots. Long a preferred address of Stanford University professors, Portola Valley has made well-staffed, well-equipped public schools a top priority. The town was incorporated in 1964, with the goal of maintaining the rural ambience of the community, and preserving open space. Today, Portola Valley is known for its unpretentious lifestyle and small-town atmosphere.

2008 in Review | Portola Valley

The median price of Portola Valley property was $2,100,000. This is the first time that the median sale price has ever exceeded $2,000,000. In 2007 the figure was $1,917,500. In 2006, the figure decreased by a small amount, down to $1,805,000 from $1,855,000 in 2005. The trend over the past five years has been positive overall; the 2008 median sale price represents an increase of more than $400,000 over the median of 2004, which was $1,700,000

The average price of a home in Portola Valley for all of 2008 was $2,225,190 Also of note: during the past year the average length of time it took to sell a home in Portola Valley remained exactly the same as in 2007: 68 days. To compare, this is 17 fewer days than the 85 days properties remained on the market in all of 2006. In 2005, properties in Portola Valley averaged 81 days on the market, and in 2004 the average was 71 days.

In 2008, the number of closed transactions plummeted to a 10-year record low of 53. During the previous year, the number of residential properties sold in Portola Valley rose to 74, up from 59 properties sold in 2006. This is far fewer than the 91 Portola Valley homes that closed escrow in 2005, and the 87 homes that closed escrow in 2004. The previous record low occurred in 2001, when only 55 properties closed escrow. A comparison of the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2007 shows that the number of last quarter sales has fallen by approximately 66 percent.