The nearly 7 year saga of Windemere will soon come to an end. Mixed feeling awash, sometimes I feel sad to see sales centre folks leave everytime a builder closes out a build out but at the same time I happy to see that we will see some stability here finally.

Windemere started back in 2002 in the Dougherty Valley. When I reminisce back to the time of 1999( when I moved to San Ramon) and 2001, this valley was a huge parcel of nothingness, just one winding road through hills and green pastures.I still remember driving through, sometimes very fast because there were no cops around(!!) and I would love every second of it. SLowly the landscape changed to a residential community with tree lined streets.

The first settlers came in, the world was now slowly becoming aware of this lovely sub division. By 2005 the demand increased an dprices started to go up and steadily climbed on an upward tick till end of 2006. Investors started descending upon the community, maybe in search of the gold mine....

But then the bubble burst and the investors who bought homes for flips, started to rent these homes hoping against hope that things will get better soon and before their ARM's adjusted, the market would be back up again. Little did they know that it was a pipe dream. Just as the market surged in Windemere by nearly 30-35% annual appreciation, it dropped just as bad because the investors started to dump their assets. It started with price cuts, went to foreclosures and the latest was an up tick in short sales.

The first Bank owned home that came on the market was on Hastings Way. Priced at $1,023,900 it sold for $975,000 after being on the market for 36 days.In 2007 there were only 3 foreclosures that came in the last quarter of the year.Over the span of 2008 came in 39 foreclosures in Windemere, possibly the darkest period of our community. With new homes still being released by builders and foreclosures on the rise, Windemere was on the verge of being derailed.On 11/2/2007, the person who bought a townhouse on Ashwell lane for 620K saw the value of the property plummet by nearly 25% in a matter of a few months !

Then in February 2009, the change started happening.While in 2008 one could not give aay these houses, now the demand started to rise.A house on Knightsbridge Way, a bank owned listed for 855K sold for 882K in just 22 days. With a few random swings up and down, in June of 2009 the REO market seemed to be in demand.From tha point onwards, almost every REO sold for over asking price with a much shorter days on market span and with multiple offers.

The Short Sale span began from the first short sale in Windemere that came on the market in December 2006.This house sold after being on the market for 6 months. Then in 2007 we saw only 5 short sales; in 2008 we had 31 short sales listed and successfully closed; in 2009, 33 short sales closed and currently 44 pending waiting to close.What a change in the market dynamics...

Whether we like it or not and no matter the pain in dealing with banks, short sales are going to be the mainstay of our inventory in 2010. The new construction in Windemere is now primarily the higher price point homes, that in my opinion will see another short down tick in prices and will pick up again 3rd quarter of this coming year. THere are a lot of homeowners who are struggling with the banks to get loan modifications, so they can continue to stay in their homes.if the banks cooperate, we will see a stabilization in the next 24 months.

The demand for housing in this sub division is tremendous and for people who want to hang in, the times will get better. Maybe not as rapid of appreciation this time around, but then again who knows??

Wishing All a very Happy 2010 and may everyone find Happiness and peace in their lives.