Almaden Valley, a neighborhood of about 37,000 within the city of San Jose in northern California, has seen mixed results in its real estate market in the last few months. The community, like so many others in the vicinity, saw a steep drop in prices after the recession took hold across America.

In January 2010, there were 46 Almaden Valley homes for sale, a sign that the market is improving and inventory clearing out, as there were 74 homes for sale in the same period one year earlier. Of the homes for sale in January 2010, 40% were in escrow, 23% were short sales and 10% were bank-owned homes.

During the same period, there were just two condos listed for sale on the Almaden Valley real estate market in January 2010, compared with nine in 2009. Both of these listings were conventional condo sales, neither bank-owned or short sales.

But taking a look at the greater city of San Jose, we can still see signs for caution. According to the city’s newspaper, the Mercury News, foreclosures in the county were on the rise in January, rising 37%. Additionally, homes that have been foreclosed upon in Santa Clara County – in which Almaden Valley and San Jose lie – are spending an average of 221 days on the market versus just 143 in August 2008. In January, there were 4,850 homes scheduled to be foreclosed upon in the county.