WCI picture of housing recovery

If you rewind the tape to 2009, it would have been hard to imagine that luxury homebuilder and developer WCI Communities would be building homes again.

The Bonita Springs-based company filed for bankruptcy protection that year, a victim of the housing collapse.

Creditors who were expected to sell off parts of the company bit-by-bit decided instead that WCI would be better off building homes again.

In retrospect, it looks like creditors made the right call after WCI emerged from bankruptcy in September 2009. The company recently reported its 100th home sale in 2012. Year-to-date sales are up 181% over the first quarter of 2011, according to WCI president and CEO David Fry.

WCI is now building in eight communities, seven of which are located in Tampa, Bradenton, Venice, Fort Myers and Naples. The eighth community is in Parkland, near Pompano Beach.