NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

Best Places to Work 2008 Awards Reception

September 25, 2008, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Doubletree Hotel, Rohnert Park

E-Mail Express

Name:

Company:

E-mail:

Phone:

Christopherson plans 138-home subdivision

PRICED IN LOW $700,000S, BUILDER WANTS TO BE READY FOR RETURN OF MARKET STRENGTH

SANTA ROSA – Santa Rosa-based Christopherson Homes will start construction this year on 138 new single-family houses in southeast Santa Rosa.

The project, which the company is calling Chaparral, includes three- to six-bedroom homes with solar panels, with an average size of 2,600 square feet. The project also includes a park and 24 affordable apartments.

The single-family homes will be priced in the low $700,000s, according to Brenda Christopherson, an owner and executive vice president of sales and marketing for the family-owned builder.

The new project will make Christopher-son one of the first homebuilders to start a major project in more than a year and one of the only builders with a large project targeting the upper-middle end of the market.

According to Ms. Christopherson, Chaparral will be the first of several new projects for her company, which slowed its pace of construction since the start of the housing market downturn in mid-2005. Now that the company’s inventory of unsold homes in the North Bay has shrunk from 35 to 40 at its peak to about 12, Ms. Christopherson said it wants to position itself for a turnaround in the market.

“What you do today has effects on a year or two years from now,” she said. “If we were to just pull up and just close the doors and wait for a better day, the problem is it takes a couple years to ramp up.”

Christopherson, one of the largest homebuilders in the North Bay, sold 112 new houses in 2007, down 39 percent from 196 in 2006. It is not the only builder that has slowed construction. Only 147 new single-family building permits were pulled in Sonoma County during the first four months of 2008, less than half the number for the same period a year earlier and down 69 percent from 2006.

So far, home sales in the upper-middle market have remained slow, even as activity has picked up at the lower end of the market. Home sales of $650,000 and $850,000 were down 57 percent from the beginning of the year through mid-June, compared with the same period a year ago, according to data provided by Joe Henderson, a broker associate with Keller Williams Realty in Santa Rosa. Meanwhile, sales below $650,000 have increased 8 percent, boosted by deep discounts and high foreclosures at the low end of the market.

Real estate consultant Jim Scally said it makes sense to start a higher-end project now because there are few new homes being built within the $700,000 price range.

“There’s a lot more competition in the lower end and a lot less in the higher end,” said Mr. Scally, a vice president with North American Title Co.

Christopherson’s Chaparral is next to another new project already under construction by Santa Rosa-based Taylor Mountain Inc., a Condiotti family company. Since the 94-home Taylor Mountain is expected to have lower prices, the two builders will be able to market the projects together, Ms. Christopherson said.

“We don’t have the same buyers,” she said. Both projects are part of a fast-growing area of Santa Rosa near the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, which includes Christopheron’s master-planned community, Ragle Ranch. The new project is the last phase of Ragle Ranch, which will include 500 total homes.

Book of Lists Online