My wife and I cancelled escrow on a place in Escala, an older tract (older being it was built in 2005), a few weeks back. Great place, but purchase price was $770K and I was convinced it would be worth no more than $700k in a year.
Talega is a great community - with a lot of great people living there. However, we don't have kids yet and it's very kids-centric. There are also a lot of houses in the $800k-1.2m range that are pushing houses in the 650-800k range lower. I expect more of these homes to continue dropping in price. I just saw a place that is 3200 sq/ft listed at 799K. A short-sale no doubt, but listed below 800K neverthless. We're thinking of looking there in about 3-4 years, when we'll pick up a place listed over a million today for probably mid-high 800s.
The Pulte tract is called Sabella. Not a bad tract if you bought a place 1.5 years ago, but then again, despite having a better lot and more space, you're about 1-200K underwater. The few remaining homes Pulte is trying to unload are terrible. They're about 2000 sq/ft on a 3200 sq/ft lot and look right into the back of a neighbors' house. All the design choices have been made, and I don't think they did a very good job.
If we were to buy in Talega now, I'd focus more on some deals in Portomarin (just down from Sabella) or look for a resale that was upgraded. The older places in Talega tend to have much bigger lots - I think the builders got greedy towards the end....
