About Santa Rosa's Bennett Valley

I confess...Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa, CA beckoned me so I played hookey (hookie? hooky? You know what I mean!) yesterday afternoon. The late summer weather was a perfect 78 degrees and it was just too nice to stay inside and work, so I jumped in our ’65 VW convertible and headed over to glorious Spring Lake Park in Bennett Valley.

Spring Lake is one of my favorites of the 46 inspiring regional parks in our magnificent Sonoma County parks system and it is almost within walking distance of my home in Santa Rosa. Situated in Bennett Valley, there are numerous hiking trails, a great family picnic and swim area at the Lagoon, bike trails, playgrounds, boat launches, horse trails, overnight camp grounds and of course the lovely Spring Lake.

This park is typically filled with lots of families having picnics, but this afternoon it was relatively quiet since it was it after Labor Day and things are definitely starting to wind down. There is such a quiet beauty about Spring Lake and I find myself walking the dogs there often on the miles of paved walkways. I can’t wait for later in September when they are going to open the Lagoon for a ‘Dog Day’ and I can take my Golden Retriever, Tiberious, for a fun afternoon of swimming! Glenn will bring his Labs, Cali and Lilly andall the Mortgage Retrievers will all have a ball.

On this particular afternoon, I was delighted to find the ‘Park & Eat Food Trucks’ on site and according to Indio, who manned the Sonoma County Parks Booth, there are a rotating number of delicious food trucks who set up from 4pm until dusk, and will be doing so until the end of October. Yum! My carnitas tacos were fabulous!

If you’re ever visiting our gorgeous northern California wine country of Sonoma County, you will have so many choices of neat places to go and see, so come and enjoy!! And you might as well also check out our Santa Rosa real estate market while you're at it! Here is a great resource for an authentic wine country visit. September and October will reward you with some of the nicest weather of the year, although I have to tell you that having near perfect year round weather is hard to beat. And harvest has finally started, so there is lots of activity in the wine country. Fun times!

Summerfield Villages in Bennett Valley is an intimate planned unit development (PUD) of 37 units, built in 1989. 

The homes are townhouse style, attached single family residences.  They are frequently mistakenly listed by agents that don't know better as condominiums, but they're not condo's.  As an owner, you own the land your residence sits on, and the rights to the sky above the unit (nobody can build a bridge over your home without your permission or tunnel under your home).  This makes the residences more valuable.  For more information on the differences between condominiums and townhouses click here: Condo or townhouse.

First, lets start off with Summerfield Villages location.  They are located on Summerfield Rd in the heart of Bennett Valley.  They are within a mile of one of the biggest parks inSonoma County, Annadel State Park.  There is also easy access to US 101. 

Being build 20 years ago, the landscape is big, mature and beautiful.  On the day I took these photo's the trees were in full bloom.  The development is full of paths and trails with a central open space area in the middle of the development.  There is a private pool area with club house. 

The units are 2bedroom 2 bath up to 4 bedrooms.  The homes vary in size from   1376 sq ft, to 2072 sq ft, and sit on lots that also vary in size from 1800 sq ft to 5000 sq ft.  

There is a homeowner's association (HOA)  with by-laws, and CC&R's that has authority over the development.  The development is managed by OAS Property Management.  Currently the monthly HOA dues are $ 303.00  which pays for:

• Building maintenance
• Streets
•  Insurance
• Management

 In 2009 one home sold for $365,000.  It was a 4bd  2ba home. 

 This is a great Bennett Valley development where homes are rarely for sale.  If you're interested in selling, or buying one of these homes, call me.  I can arrange to show anything that is available, or make inquiry to see if anybody is considering selling.  Call me if you're interested in other Bennett Valley townhomes or condominiums. 

California and Arizona Home loans will be up to 95% LTV Soon!

Good news for California and Arizona home buyers! Starting February 22, 2010, mortgage insurance companies are easing up on their guidelines on conforming home loans! Homebuyers can put 5% down on conforming home loans again! It's about time! This is a good sign for the real estate market in California and Arizona. You can now buy a home without having the more restrictive FHA guidelines that usually scare home sellers from accepting an FHA loan offer.

There are a few restrictions to consider, here's the list:

1. All buyers must have a 720 Fico score or higher
2. Owner Occupied Only
3. Single Family or Condos only
4. Debt to Income ratios can not exceed 41% for all LTVs over 80%

This is a nice turn of events for both home buyers and home sellers in California and Arizona. It's good news for the rest of us in the business too! Now, if we can only get some more inventory in Sonoma County!

I was doing some research this morning about real estate and came across this site I thought you might like to know about. It's a consumer oriented website created by the National Association or Realtors. I don't have time to explore the site today,but will check it out soon. If anyone has tried the site out, feel free to leave some feedback. Thanks!

http://www.houselogic.com/

This morning, I couldn't find words to post anything on my blog, so I decided to read instead. Well, as usual, I will go from one article to another to the next and back to something else that interests me. Today was not exception, I started on AR, went to CNN, over to facebook, turned right on blogger and jumped over to twitter absorbing articles and opinions until I ran into this video on youtube. It's about having more fun in life which is exactly my motto for 2010 and beyond. So, I thought I would share it in hopes the video will inspire others like it inspired me today. Enjoy!

If you can't see the video, the link is here.