Residential Real Estate: William Lyon Homes opens 100-home Enclave in Fairfield

“The Solano County housing market is on the road to recovery,” said a recent study by the California Building Industry Association. The report shows that Solano County is among the top six counties in California for new home construction, growing 20 percent over the last 12 months.

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William Lyon Homes is opening a new development in Fairfield, The Enclave at Paradise Valley.

“We are excited to see that William Lyon Homes is opening this new community in Fairfield,” said the city’s mayor, Harry Price.  “These homes will help support our city’s economic growth and recovery by creating new jobs and bringing more new residents to our city.”

Each new home built creates, on average, three jobs for a year and generates $90,000 in taxes paid to local, state and federal agencies, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

This 100-homesite new community is located on the Paradise Valley Golf Course.

“The Enclave offers buyers the opportunity to live in one of the area's fastest-growing cities for young families, retirees and those looking for an exceptional place to call home,” said Dave McKown, director of sales and marketing for Northern California at William Lyon Homes. “The fine craftsmanship of these homes, the ideal golf course setting and the outstanding price offer a new-home value we feel homebuyers have been waiting for.”

The one- and two-story models range from 2,059 to 3,056 square feet with up to five bedrooms and three baths. New homes start in the high $300,000.

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Christopher and Darcy Barrow have opened Foundation Rentals and Relocation, a Kentfield-based residential property firm that works with high-end property owners and potential tenants.

The Barrows, who have more than a decade of experience in the high-end residential property rental and leasing market in Marin, have assembled a team of agents whose efforts are focused on a real estate industry segment that is often an adjunct for sales-oriented firms.

“Property rentals, especially in the $3,000 to $10,000 per month market segment, take a very special kind of knowledge and network,” said Ms. Barrow.  “Most real estate firms have devoted themselves to selling property and do not have the infrastructure or the understanding of the market niche to be successful at rentals.”

The Barrows had previously worked with a firm that handled rentals throughout the Bay Area.

Foundation Rentals and Relocation works with sales-oriented real estate firms whose clients have decided to rent their properties and with corporate relocation and human resources departments to assist in corporate rentals for relocating their executives to the Bay Area.

“On the corporate side, we have been working with companies who are moving executives to Marin, and they recognize how well we understand the area and the depth of our contacts in the market,” Ms. Barrow said.

The Foundation Rentals and Relocation basic rate is 6 percent of the contract total or 50 percent of one month’s rent for leases under nine months. Agents are available seven days a week. The office is located at 925 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Kentfield. For more information, call 415-507-9600.

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Wells Fargo Economics Group published a study showing that low mortgage rates have not produced a rise in the market for home sales and foreclosures have depressed prices.

The report said the market is not yet out of the woods.

“Sales of both new and existing homes appear to have risen modestly following their sharp declines in July in the wake of the expiration of the homebuyer tax credits,” the report said. But “with the declines, the supply of unsold homes remains uncomfortably high relative to sales.”

The report said the threat of foreclosures is again taking center stage, with anecdotal reports showing a surge in foreclosures occurring in August.

“The increased number of foreclosures and short sales is expected to pull prices lower during the second half of 2010, with price declines most problematic in the nation’s most overbuilt markets,” it said.

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Submit items for this column to Jenna V. Loceff at jloceff@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4259 or fax 707-521-5292.

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