Oakwood Shores had the dubious distinction of being San Joaquin County’s biggest residential foreclosure casualty.

Over $98 million in bank backed loans held by Beck Properties for the 480-lot lakefront gated community being developed on the site of the former Manteca Waterslides went into default in July of 2008. The Stockton-based developer had rolled out luxury homes with base prices ranging between $644,990 and $764,990. The biggest floor plan packed with all of the options was pushing $1 million.

Only 25 homes broke ground with only 11 being completed and sold before the project went bust.

Today, it is a much different story.

Lafferty Homes - working with Tri-Con Capital out of Canada - has bought the project out of foreclosure and has turned it around. The Beck Properties homes that were in various stages of being finished have been completed and sold.

And before the six models and sales pavilion were even finished, Lafferty Homes has 12 contracts pending. Perhaps even more amazing is the gated community had 40 prospective homebuyers pass through last weekend despite the fact they haven’t advertised, they’re not 100 percent up and running with the models, and it is fairly difficult to reach thanks to the main access road - Woodward Avenue - being closed due to pipeline construction.

“I think we’re starting to see the start of the housing market recovery,” Lafferty Homes President Rick Lafferty said Wednesday as he stepped into the great room of a Bella Lagos model series home drenched with sunlight from a bank of windows that provided a sweeping view of a manmade lake.

And the type of buyers Lafferty Homes is dealing with today as opposed to six years ago during the housing boom gives Lafferty a feeling that things have really changed.

“They’re buying for the lifestyle and not buying for an investment,” Lafferty said. “There’s a big difference.”

Beck Properties was building homes with stone floors and other design innovations that were considered upscale and innovative for a production home back in 2008. But their prices that pushed $800,000 for a base remodel were a bit intimidating. That became even more so as the housing market started its plunge.

What Laffetry has done at Oakwood Shores is also innovative, especially for the 2012 housing market. First, he came up with exterior designs that dovetailed into what Beck Properties had started but with a bigger emphasis on value.

Lafferty didn’t mimic the interior designs of Beck Homes. Instead he has rolled out what he calls “flex floor plans” that allow numerous variations with the envelope of the model home. To help potential buyers get a feel of their options, the sales pavilion will include a large touch screen to allow people with a touch of their fingers to create a visual alteration of options under the feel design approach.



Flex plans offer custom feel

Along with flex designs he employed interior touches that added volume to create a sense of space that makes a 2,500-square-foot home feel like a 3,500-square-foot home. It was accomplished in a number of subtle ways as well as with tall primary rooms that employ spacious banks of windows overlooking the water. It includes transoms over the great rooms along with floor plans on the second story models that take full advantage of the opportunity to create views of the water.

Each floor plan offers its own unique surprises. One has a laundry room under the staircase. Another has balconies overlooking the front yard off of secondary bedrooms. And another has a second floor balcony that is essentially a covered patio.

All of those touches - plus the expanse of windows and glass door options opening to the back - are designed to make patios and other spaces feel as if they are outdoor rooms.

There are also model specific options such as front patios with fireplaces, secondary master bedroom suites with separate kitchen and their own entrances from front courtyards for elderly parents or even children who have returned home from college. There are premiums for lake front homes that feature options such as docks.

The prices aren’t in the nosebleed territory of $644,990 to $764,990 for the base models as they were in 2008. Instead they range from $313,900 for the 2,292 square foot model to the largest model base price of $390,000. Typically buyers are spending more than $400,000 on homes.

It is a price point that seems agreeable to buyers almost all who are heading from San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties as opposed to 2006 when Bay Area buyers completely dominated the new sales market in Manteca.

The custom feel the flex plan allows is also agreeable to buyers.

Lafferty said he enjoys the fact that buyers keep coming back and back because they see something different each time that makes their final decision on a model and flex options a tad more difficult.

And as far as he’s concerned that is the way it should be so buyers end up with homes that fit their preferred lifestyle and that they want to live in.

Part of the improvements that Lafferty Homes has made was to complete the clubhouse and swimming pool as well as sell a number of lots to the reclamation district so the levees could be strengthened to assure long-term flood protection.

A grand opening is planned for later this month.

Given the construction on Woodward Avenue, the easiest way currently to reach Oakwood Shores is to take West Yosemite Avenue to McKinley Avenue and turn south. Take McKinley to where it T-intersects with Woodward Avenue and turn right. That will take you to the gated entrance to Oakwood Shores.