The Silicon Valley is an area mostly comprised of Santa Clara County, with a little bit slipping into adjoining counties (Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and Alameda most of all). Within Santa Clara County, population 1.8 million, the largest city by far is San Jose, which has nearly 1 million residents.

To get a pulse on the area, San Jose is usually a very strong gage. Today I used the newest Altos Research reports, to which I subscribe, to see how San Jose and Silicon Valley are doing compared to a year ago.

What's surprising is to see that the market climate isn't really a lot worse. It certainly feels worse - prices are down substantially, days on market are up and inventory is not low. But in actuality, conditions are very similar to Oct and Nov 2007.

To read more, please visit: How's the Silicon Valley real estate market now as compared to a year ago?