Wine Country And Horses

The title of my last blog post was so upbeat I was a tad embarrassed on reflection.  Was I just drinking the real estate Koolaid?

 If you read the body of the post last week, you’d realize that my comments were a little more nuanced, but there was good reason for my optimism. I was in the midst of a multiple offer competition on a property in Healdsburg (my buyers are now in escrow and very happy), there were many properties going into escrow in the last couple of weeks in Sonoma County, and not just in the bottom end of the REO pool. Some really special country properties in Sebastopol and Graton that interested a number of my clients sold within a week of coming on the market before people could even get up here from out of town to see them. Open houses were packed all over the county. My transaction coordinator, Alise Posman, had 10 newly opened escrow files on her desk Monday morning and she is only one of several TC’s at our office.

It seems that there is a lot of pent up demand, and people with cash are deciding to invest in real estate here rather than stuff it under a mattress. Some are buying rentals, some are buying homes for the first time. Some are buying weekend homes, or rentals that will eventually become their wine country retirement homes. Some are searching for horse properties and there are some great deals at a variety of price points.

That said, I felt a little sheepish about the headline, given the brutal reality of current conditions in our country. The old title of Richard Farina’s 1966 book came to mind: “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me”. I guess we are taking these signs of life as encouragement where we can this spring.

No one has any illusions that happy days are here again but there are little glimmers of hope, kind of like the first bulbs coming up in the spring. It will be interesting to see how this year unfolds. But don’t believe if you are a buyer that you will be without competition for the best properties, well-priced and in good condition this spring. If you are a seller take heed, and do what it takes to be perceived as a deal right out of the chute. You might be pleasantly surprised.

But not over a million.  That part of our market is very slow.  But signs are very encouraging for a more balanced market in 2009 at all price points under a million.  The experience of most Sonoma County realtors I know is that buyers are out if force for January, following a very busy holiday season.  The big difference is that we are finally seeing sales movement at prices between $400,000 and $1 million, as buyers in those price ranges seem to be stepping off the fence. Both single family homes and condos are selling at a rapid clip. More details to come but here is a quick snapshot for single family dwellings in all price ranges through January 30, 2009.

You can take advantage of Cyrus’ two Michelin stars and have less than a 1/2 mile walk home.

…..Or Starbucks?….one half of a mile, the Tuesday night Farmers Market? …1/2 mile. The Raven Theater ?….only .32 of a mile.

These are some of the nifty facts you learn, for example, about my classic Healdsburg bungalow listing at 414 Piper Street when you visit Walkscore.com, one of the coolest real estate search tools I found in 2008.

Because their Wordpress support for this template is lacking at the moment, you will need to plug in 414 Piper Street, Healdsburg to the widget in the upper right hand corner of home page of Wine Country and Horses to generate a map, walkscore and a true view of an addresses’ nearby amenities. I also use Walkscore to convey to country property clients how near (or far) shopping, schools and restarants are. Generally in Sonoma County wine country, people like to know that their lovely country home is still pretty close in to conveniences.

It’s another mashup–combining mapping technology with local directory services–the purpose?

To promote walking, health and help people to reduce their carbon footprint by choosing homes with high walkscores! I think you’d have to live in Manhattan, downtown Seattle, Boston’s Back Bay or Pacific Heightsi in San Francisco to have a higher walkscore.

The company is expanding it’s services to realtors by making a programming interface (API) available for custom use of the Walkscore engine. What a great tool to add to your real estate search portfolio (or if you are marketing a property,to add dimension to your listing promotion.)

Walkscore generates a map or street view of your targeted home and shows you the distance to all the local restaurants, shops, schools and other amenities. It can help you get to know a neighborhood you might be considering.  I can’t imagine anyone looking for property who wouldn’t want to know their Walkscore. (and no, I don’t work for the company! )

The mustard is about a foot high with brilliant yellow flowers, the daffodils have just begun to bloom after pushing up since early December, and it was 74 degrees the other day. We have had two weeks of unbroken glorious weather which is lovely but we are finally getting some severely need rain. Grapegrowers are worried about early bud break, because we still have frost at night and will for some time.

Today my thoughts turned to the pair of mallard ducks who spend their spring break by my pool, bordering some old vine zinfandel that belongs to a neighbor. Generally the last few years, they seem to miraculously show up right around the same time they spring into my mind. Perhaps they are not the only ones tuned into the lengthening days and warming weather?

One of the things I love about living in the country, and being out and about early every morning to feed the horses at more or less the same time each day, is that I feel tuned in to nature in a way that I didn’t quite get living “in town”.

Maybe I should set up a duck cam so I can capture their arrival this year? Last year they showed up on February 25th. I’ll keep you posted when they return, meanwhile, here they are in 2008.   I guess I have intermittent spring fever.