Sigorwoz

Thank you for your response. After seeing Amgen decline and the collapse of Countrywide, it felt like Conejo Valley was not the best place to go especially since these are the largest employers. We ended up staying in the Bay Area with a better and more secure job market. - Sun May 18 2008, 14:45

Is Westlake Village, T.O. or Agoura a better investment over Dos Vientos? It seems like it might be far from the freeway, but nice houses...? Are the schools better in the other areas? - Thu Jan 3 2008, 12:32

They bought their home early summer of 2006 are just a little upside down. - Thu Jan 3 2008, 18:45

I think they will stay for a while since they are upside down on their house. I think they will move when the market recovers. They also wish they had waited to buy given the current state of housing prices. Have you looked off of Lawrence Road? Hidden Valley is also a good area and is close to town and good family community. There is a nice home on Monza for sale. - Thu Jan 3 2008, 18:28

They have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. They now like the Northridge, Wood Ranch, Magee Ranch and some westside areas. They believe the people in Blackhawk (they are in the gates) to be older and it has a more "snotty" conotation which I think is keeping young families out of the area. My friends also came from a very family friendly neighborhood in southern CA (Westlake Village/Thousand Oaks) where we all hung out together and the kids played in the culdesacs. - Thu Jan 3 2008, 15:40

I have some friends who have kids that moved to Blackhawk about 18 months ago and DO NOT like it. They feel it is not kid friendly and wished they had bought in another area. - Thu Jan 3 2008, 14:48

I have some friends who have moved to Blackhawk and do not like it. They have small children and do not feel like it is a good neighborhood for them. I have heard that from other families who lived there and then moved to other areas of Danville. The Northridge and Wood Ranch areas of Danville are GREAT family neighborhoods. Have you seen 99 Woodranch Circle?

Susan, I would love to chat live with you about this, as this is my second time living in Danville. I LOVE this area..we just moved back from Thousand Oaks, CA which was a nice family burb. Having owned a home in Tassajara Ranch (up by Blackhawk), we just (last night) bought a FSBO home on westside Alamo and are very excited about it. Where did you move from? - Mon Nov 19 2007, 15:46

Buying an older home in Danville with more property will prove to be a better buy and "value". As density increases, buyers are wanting more land. I have friends who bought some of these newer homes and want out badly given there is no privacy and the increase in density is causing additional strain and congestion in the area. They want to move to westside Alamo or Danville and are willing to remodel. These newer homes will always be competing with more newer homes as Tassajara continues building and increasing density and are probably not the nest buy given market conditions. - Thu Nov 15 2007, 09:39

Danville is ALWAYS a better buy or investment over San Ramon. I have lived in Windemere and Danville and every person I met in Windemere did not like it there and wished they bought in Danville. There is also more price volitility in San Ramon. - Mon Nov 12 2007, 12:54

I do agree that Danville and Alamo will not drop 38%, but it indicators are pointing to a drop of at least 10-12% (accounting for falsley infalted pricing) over the next year before stabilization. It makes sense to be very careful before buying and if you are going to purchase in the near term to look for a "value" in buying. There is still a large deparity between what sellers believe their house is worth and what buyers are willing to pay. And, yes the media is scarring and trying to provide education to buyers which is making it worse for sellers. But, I must say with the thought of paying $1.5M for a home, I am willing to wait a little longer to save some money before move into a more stable market. The fear that is out there will cause a paralysis of the market on top of the major credit crisis equals a disaster and absolutely lower pricing. Realtors in the area are not optomistic about the next year and believe we will see a 4-8% drop in the above mentioned areas and we will then stabilize in 2009. They are also saying that sellers and not getting ANY offers and are willing to take sometimes as low as $200K below their asking price. There will undoubtly be further price reductions, but it is a roll of the dice as to how much that drop will be. These times are UNPRECEDENTED just like the stock market of falsely inflated companies and earnings. We are also tettering on a recession which is a precursor for lower pricing....maybe the international market will pour money into the US real estate market and help bring it back...? - Mon Nov 12 2007, 21:46

We relocated back to the area from southern CA and I am glad we decided to rent and not buy too. This area (we are looking at Danville and Alamo) is a great area, but it will still see some downward pricing pressure and given home prices, it needs to come down further. In the Sunday paper, Chris Thornberg (UCLA economist that the biggest financial institutions turn to as their guru on where the market is heading) believes we have another year or two before we begin to STABILIZE and that we could see another 25% decrease to return to proper ratios. We cannot be fooled by falsely inflated prices, but need to be able to recognize a "value" when buying a home. - Mon Nov 12 2007, 12:48

The Fortune article believes in order to clear inventory, it will take approximately 5 years and then stablize. They base their large percentage price drop on rent-to-pricing ratios and once those are in balance, we will see investors come back intop the market and inventory will drop. The forecast of a 38% drop is from June 2007 prices, with the assumption of rent increases over 5 years, there would be an overall drop of 16%. My concern is buying a fixer upper at a high price and then getting my money out of it after putting $100K in to fix it up. The westside has always been desirable, but at what price these days... - Sun Nov 4 2007, 08:16