Hi Rama,

I am looking into buying a home in San Ramon. Currently seeing a "special" right away move in price of 930k$ for Shapell Mosaic Athena plan 4 (3200sqf home on a 4800 sqf lot) in Gale Ranch. Is this really a good price for the Windermere San Ramon area or is this an average price ? For the same amount of money, would it be more worthy (long term resale value) to buy a home in Danville ( for eg at the Shapell Alamo Creek) instead of Gale Ranch which is very close the electric line poles ?

Chris.

Hi Rama,

Your effort for providing the data us much appreciated. It is good and please continue. I was waiting for your blog.

Can you please explain how the prices and number of Sales compared here?

Chris

If I were you I would walk away !! The power lines are going to cause a problem for you to sell this house later on; the lot size is really small considering the size of the house- your yard will be quite tiny; the " special price" is nonsense as they are overpriced. Danville can be a good alternative but I am personally wary of Shapell.I have heard quite a few bad things about this builder from my fraternity and getting feedback form my buyers- they do not like the architectural details of these homes.I personally think that The Bridges commmunity was the best Shapell built but now they are building cookie cutter homes. 

Thanks Rama for the advice. I will follow your advice and walk away from this property. Is there any more reputable builder that you would recommend instead ?

Chris 

Depends on where you want to buy... if you want to be in Gale Ranch then the only builder is Shapell. Builders in Windemere are pretty good, I live there and have no problems with customer service post purchase.I would recommend for you to check online for the different builder reputations.Danville also has Shapell and I think Lennar and KB.I have not heard very good things about KB but Lennar is ok.

J,

Thanks for your post. The graph shows how prices have fluctuated over the 3 years. There have been gains in prices since 2005 but the sales prices dropped to almost 2004 prices in 2008. The graph lines are showing an upward trend in price and activity for 2008 now as you can see the line drop and picking up.THe market activity and prices are in slow recovery and it will take some time before they really go up but I can assure you that as soon as the builders get out of Windemere the prices will start seeing bigger recovery for sellers.

J,

Thanks for your post. The graph shows how prices have fluctuated over the 3 years. There have been gains in prices since 2005 but the sales prices dropped to almost 2004 prices in 2008. The graph lines are showing an upward trend in price and activity for 2008 now as you can see the line drop and picking up.THe market activity and prices are in slow recovery and it will take some time before they really go up but I can assure you that as soon as the builders get out of Windemere the prices will start seeing bigger recovery for sellers.

Thanks Rama for your great advice. I dropped the offer for the Shapell house and found a much better home with Centex Sera Vista (which have great incentives at this time).

Cheers, Chris.

Awesome !!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for you. Tell Marina and Dave I said a big Hi.They will take good care of you. I am so happy that you listened. Send me an offline message, let me know what deal you got. Take care and hopefully you will remember to recommend me to your friends !!

Good to see that you took down your bitter post from last week.

yeah, I was having a really hard time with a lot of stuff going on !!! I am glad I took it off because I have always been a positive person and thats what I want to be- always !!

What do u think of these properties? Are they indicating a downturn in the windemere area :

3911 JAMIE PL
SAN RAMON, CA 94582

$919,900

5 Bedrooms
3 Bathrooms
4,003 Est. Sq. Ft.

Listing # 40351713

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3936 JAMIE PL

SAN RAMON CA

5 bedrooms/3 bathroom $929900

4176 sqft Listing # 40350139 (this one has already gone pending after being listed for 2-3 days)

I am not convinced that we have hit a bottom yet. Every week, Trulia data shows that the listing price for homes in San Ramon has decreased compared to the prior month. Compared to 6 months ago, there are a lot of homes in the market in the 800s range. These same homes were listed in the 900s range 6 months ago. Also, if you check at the recently sold properties, most homes are being sold for around 5% less than the listing price. Come winter months, either the listing price will decrease further or the houses will be sold for 10% less than listing price or both...Only time will tell.

Trulia and Zillow do not show correct and live data. These companies depend on sellers posting information and the records are not up to date. I agree that prices have come down and I never said that prices were going up.When I wrote this blog, my goal was to show activity is up substantially and the graphs I have created are with real time data.I agree also that homes have sold for 3-5% below the list price but you are not aware of the fact that many homes which came on the market at low prices have sold with multiple offers.And that information is available only to agents because I have lost on 5 offers- we were in a multiple offer situation and the buyers wanted to write up the offers 5-10% below list price !! Winter months will definitely slow down the market because that is a seasonal adjustment that take place EVERY year. Time alone will tell as I do not have a crystal ball but being out there in the market everyday, I know how frustrated buyers are because the inventory is low in Windemere and they need to move now.

Hello Rama

Thanks for the informative blog. While we see that the list price has dipped since 6 months, what we hear is that a BUYER can negotiate a better deal and sometime more than 120 - 150 K.(Reason being some of the builder just hike up and give a hefty discount once when you start negotiating)

a. Is that true?

b. If you cannot bring the price down - look for upgrades

Can we have your comments please Thanks