Wine Country And Horses

Santa Rosa is more than the largest city in Sonoma County, more than the largest city between San Francisco and the Oregon border to the north. It sprawls across over 40 square miles and is home to 160,000 people–half of it to the West of Highway 101 stretching towards Sebastopol, home of not only to vintage Railroad Square and newer subdivisions but farmlands, vineyards and equestrian properties in the Willowside and Olivet areas and over to the Laguna de Santa Rosa. To the east of 101 is downtown Santa Rosa, flanked by numerous charming communities of vintage homes, from Fountain Grove to Bennett and Rincon Valleys and Riebli Valley wine country. Many out of town buyers are not aware of the geographic diversity and gorgeous countryside in Santa Rosa. Here is a lovely video vignette produced by Sonoma Uncorked.com You can search the most up to date listings of Santa Rosa homes and country properties for sale with my compliments by going to the search page of this website.

Santa Rosa CA Video

I have been writing a lot lately about Month’s Supply of Inventory as it relates the national and California real estate markets to the Sonoma County real estate market. Inventory here is much lower then either nationally or statewide, putting Sonoma County in a real seller’s market, primarily at the lower price points but we are also seeing a lot more movement of mid-priced and upper end properties over a million dollars. That price point was dead much of this year.

I thought I would do a series of quick snapshots of inventory supply in each of the major Sonoma County MLS regions so we could see the variation within the county. Some of these have small sample sizes but I think they are big enough to spot trends. If you asked me about 3 bedroom homes on quarter acre lots in Northeast Santa Rosa, we might not have a big enough sample to be meaningful, but you can try me. If you would like more detailed information about your community’s sales trends, please email or phone me and I will send you more detailed reports.

Santa Rosa is the largest area in the county, spanning four different quadrants: NE, SE, SW and NW. I could pull reports for each one and I suspect we would find some good variation but let’s start here.

The median price of single family homes (including condominiums and farms and ranches) is down 33% from October 2007 when it was $450,000. The low was reached in February of 2009 at $250,000. It is currently just over $300,000 for the first time since September 2008.

Months supply of inventory is only TWO MONTHS, down from a peak of 16 in both October and December 2007. Anything under 5-7 months is considered a seller’s market.

Months Supply of Housing Inventory Shrinking in Santa Rosa, CA