2444 Camino De Jugar, San Ramon

The Very Best of Twin Creeks View

Twin Creeks is one of San Ramon's most popular neighborhoods and Twin Creeks View is the "Jewel In The Crown" of Twin Creeks. Homes here have significantly more appeal than those in the rest of Twin Creeks, most of them being situated on much larger lots, with 3-car garages and with secluded yards offering a high level of privacy.

This single storey floor plan is one of the most popular in the area, and this particular home has had countless improvements made in recent years including a comprehensive kitchen remodel, which now features granite countertops over maple shaker-style cabinetry, inset lighting and high quality stainless steel appliances. The bathrooms have all been remodeled to a high standard, and the master bath has a large frameless walk-in shower with designer ceramic tile. The windows have been replaced with high efficiency dual-pane units and paneled doors have replaced the original ones.

Outside, the home is set in an elevated position behind a beautifully landscaped front garden with a lawn and a variety of well-established plants and shrubs. A wide driveway leads to a 3-car garage and there is also additional parking to the left hand side. At the rear is an expansive, completely private yard with no rear neighbors. There is also a large concrete patio and a lawn that is bordered by a wide variety of plants, shrubs and trees.

Homes of this quality are rarely offered for sale in Twin Creeks View and this is an outstanding opportunity for a discerning buyer to acquire a home that is absolutely move-in ready in one of San Ramon's most desirable neighborhoods. Twin Creeks is one of San Ramon’s most popular neighborhoods and benefits from excellent schools and easy access to shopping, restaurants, local parks, the freeway network and Bishop Ranch office park.

Offered For Sale at $920,000

Call Bernard Gibbons on (925) 997-1585 for more details or to arrrange a private showing

316 Cindy Court, San Ramon

There are many homes for sale in San Ramon at present at this point in time but few have the combined location, condition, general appeal and price as this attractive 3 bedroom 2 bath 1980s rancher.

316 Cindy Court is situated on a large flat lot on a quiet court in San Ramon’s popular Town & Country neighborhood. Light, bright and airy, it has a great floor plan with good-sized roooms including formal living and dining rooms and a family room with a feature brick fireplace.

The home is set in attractive lawned gardens with many established trees and shrubs. The back yard is particularly attractive and secluded with a sparkling pool and covered patio area for outside entertaining.

This is one of San Ramon’s most convenient locations, being in easy reach of all grades of school, freeways, shopping and Bishop Ranch office park.

Offered For Sale at only $595,000

Call Bernard Gibbons on (925) 997-1585 for more details or to arrrange a private showing

Many parts of the Bay Area, and in particular, the San Ramon Valley and Lamorinda, historically do much better than much of the country when real estate appreciation is considered.

Unfortunately, because prices increased so much and so quickly, they had further to fall and the resulting impact was devastating for many. Recently, however, the rate of decrease has slowed significantly in our area, and this is despite the negative effect on home values caused by many short sales and bank owned foreclosures that have been dumped on the market.

Evidence of Improvement

The economists tend to look at real estate on a national level and one figure they give a lot of credence to as a meaningful indicator is the “Pending Home Sales Index”. Last month this rose 5.3% nationwide, which is a significant amount. More importantly, it rose in every region of the country.

Now note that this is an index that considers numbers of transactions, not total value of transactions.

You Can’t Expect To Buy At The Bottom

What can be inferred from these numbers is that buyers now believe that home prices are not likely to fall much further, so they have the confidence to write offers and buy homes. Of course there will always be some buyers who are planning to “buy at the bottom” but the only problem with that strategy is that you can only identify “The Bottom” after you have passed it and prices are on the increase.

Possible Improvements In The Market

It will surely soon be apparent to most buyers and sellers that prices are really so close to the bottom that it makes no difference and as buyers become more active, this will encourage more potential sellers to list their homes for sale. The likely effect is that there will continue to be a wide choice of homes to buy for the next few months but as we approach the Holiday season, many of the sellers who have not been successful in agreeing a sale will take their homes off the market. From Thanksgiving onward, it is quite possible that there will be a shortage of homes to buy. The wild card in this reasoning is that we don’t know how many people will be forced to sell their homes or have them foreclosed. These are not discretionary activities and a sudden increase of numbers of homes for sale will certainly keep prices down.

What Will The New Year Bring?

As we enter 2009, I foresee that there will be many buyers who are poised to take action. If the majority of those sellers who took their homes off the market in late 2008 decide to re-list them for sale in January, the balance between buyers and sellers should be at a reasonable equilibrium and we can expect to see stable home prices throughout the year. If, on the other hand, sellers do not take such immediate action, and there are more buyers than homes available (a situation I have seen on numerous occasions at the start of a year), home prices are likely to rise. This is simply the economics of supply and demand.

Note that my thoughts only relate directly to the affluent San Ramon Valley and Lamorinda here. In other areas, not too far distant, there will continue to be a glut of homes on the market for some time to come because the numbers are already so astronomical. In these areas prices will stay low and may even decline further with more foreclosures etc.