DeLeon Insight- September 2025 Cover Page

The DeLeon Insight – September 2025



Winning Offers in 2026: What Buyers Are Doing Differently

By Louisa Brunner, Buyer Specialist If there is one word that defines the 2026 Silicon Valley housing market, it is intentional. Buyers are no longer rushing into decisions or reacting emotionally to headlines. Instead, they are informed, strategic,…

Silicon Valley Housing Market 2025 Highlights and 2026 Predictions

By Ken DeLeon, Managing Broker & Attorney The 2025 Silicon Valley housing market was exciting and volatile, shaped by countervailing forces and seasonal patterns that differed from the norm. Traditionally, spring is the busiest and most favorable…

How New MLS Rules Are Impacting Pricing and Appraisals in Silicon Valley

By Lisa Lombardi, Certified Appraiser Recent changes to Multiple Listing Service (MLS) rules, driven by industry-wide commission reforms, have not-so-quietly changed how transaction details are reported. Most notably, broker compensation and seller…

Legal Updates: New Photoshopping Rules, Stacked Development Near Transit, and Limits on Institutional Investors

By Colette R. Thomason, Esq. We have recently seen several noteworthy updates in the legal real estate arena.  The first new law discussed below has been implemented, the second will be in the summer, and the third is still evolving. 1) Effective…

Tapping into Two of Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful Buyer Pools

By Audrey Sun, Director of Listings Silicon Valley remains the epicenter of the tech world, drawing elite talent from across computer science, engineering, law, and venture capital. The buyer pool remains dominated by the best and the brightest from…

Sell Before the ARMs Race

By Francis Lopez, Director of Listings The housing inventory on the peninsula has continued its momentous decline over the past several years. This can be attributed to interest rates in two intertwined ways: (1) with interest rates above 6%, homeowners…

Referral Fee Transparency Gets a Kickback

By Alexander Lewicki, Esq., Director of Listings “Referral fees,” “incentives” or “kickbacks” (i.e., payment to another individual for the referral of a client) have long been present in the real estate industry. These fees, which often…

What’s Really Happening with Real Estate Commissions?

The AI Boom and the Stock Market Rally: Catalysts for Silicon Valley’s Luxury Real Estate Surge

By Ken DeLeon Silicon Valley has always been synonymous with innovation, wealth creation, and disruptive technologies. But in 2025, the latest wave of innovation is shaping our luxury real estate market: the AI revolution. Fueled by surging stock market…

Why We Need an Indexed Capital Gains Tax Exemption

By Ken DeLeon, Berkeley Law Graduate, Stanford Graduate School of Business Graduate The following article that I wrote was sent to journalists and inspired articles in Fortune Magazine and The Epoch Times. These articles, which quoted me extensively,…