So my curiosity was piqued yesterday at our local meeting in Santa Rosa of Coldwell Banker agents from around Sonoma County (over 110 total–thought not all were there). There were approximately 4 new country properties suitable for horses annouced as up and coming, which is a pretty healthy amount and not typical. One is in Glen Ellen and sounded interesting due to the proximity to some great riding at Annadel and Jack London State Parks. (See my post on the miles of trails in Sonoma County.)It sits on 4 usable acres with a 4 BR 2 BA single story home of about 2200 sf.

Another is in NE Santa Rosa on 2 horseable acres with a 2500 sf home. This latter is a pocket listing–it will not go on MLS any time soon but is available to be seen and priced at $1.2 million.

If you are looking for 4 acres and a view home and granny unit in Sebastopol there will be a new listing meeting that description in the Sebastopol countryside coming up in a week or two. The home is about 2600 sf with 4 bedrooms and the granny (guest) unit is about 840 sf. According to the agent this is a horse property as well and will be priced at about $1,175,000.

Another up and coming property on the Sebastopol border with Santa Rosa has 4 level acres and a 2000 sf house and will be priced at $1,095,000. I know of a couple of other pocket horse property listings and have a couple of my own upcoming that are or will be suitable for horses. I will be checking all of these out as they come up, because, as a horse owner, my definition of suitable for horses may vary from an agent who is not a horse person. All land is of course not equally usable, and it depends on your riding discipline, number of horses, etc.

There is another NE Santa Rosa country property suitable for horses coming up in a couple of weeks in the very horsey and beautiful Riebli Valley (horse and wine country par excellence!). Also four acres and priced in the $1.1 to $1.2 million dollar range.

If I can provide any information for you about these or any other horse properties, please let me know!

Today we started with a delightful end of lane listing at 8349 Lewanna, off of Elphick. For $699,000 you can have a 1232 sf home on just under an acre. A modest home which could use updating but the views are spectacular:a panorama of the SE Santa Rosa hills and the home looks directly over a sprawling vineyard. Properties don’t come up often on this lane and the setting is truly unique. With a property like this you have the benefit of what I call “borrowed acreage” –you can look at it and pretend it’s yours but you don’t have to take care of it or pay for it. Small parcels bordered by little ones can be delightful in this way.

Next we drove way out Burnside Road to view Cary Fargo’s latest cool listing at 4910 Burnside Road. This is the quintessential old farmhouse with fir floors and a tilting chimney, spring and tiny studio and pond. Lots of chamomile and herbs tumbling around and we spotted a doe and fawn leaping away. The spring has a hand dug 10 foot deep well and tiny well house covering it. Not much as been done to this house except for some blue tiles that appear to date from the 70’s in the kitchen and a massive open beamed ceiling in that room. Lots of wainscoting and original character and KILLER views of Mt. St. Helena.

The 3 plus acres appear to be very usable and Cary said there are some potential building sites on the property so that perhaps the cute farmhouse could become a granny unit and leave room for a larger main home. Check with Sonoma County PRMD on that and any other building possibility. DEFINITELY a great property for someone with vision, taste and skills, and priced at $689,000. One of two extremely special properties today.

There were a number of really interesting properties today depending on your needs–from a lovely contemporary style home on a lane off Tilton Road with lovely gardens and just over 2 usable acres, great views and a garage with a studio/office with bath above for $837,500. Nearby, an extremely artful 2993 sf home on yet another lane off Tilton on 3.39 secluded acres. An 80’s home that shows beautifully, with several levels, stunning contemplative gardens and oaks, raised vegetable beds. $1,200,000.

The most unique property was Steve Prandini’s new listing on Facendini Lane. This 14 acre property sits on one of the prettiest lanes you will ever see and is balanced between wooded acreage with meandering paths and a manicured apple orchard currently managed by Dutton Ranches, according to Steve. The 2200 sf contemporary style home is 2 BR and 2 BA with some lovely outdoor seating areas, great for orchids and people. Plus more fabulous views of the eastern Santa Rosa hills. This would be a great retreat or family getaway property, idyllically situated between Sebastopol and Occidental and near Graton. The big limiting factor for this property is the fact that this is a water scarce area, so agricultural pursuits and much building expansion would probably be limited. But for the right people (and for $1,300,000) this is an enchanting and peaceful property. There is more to talk about on this week’s tour, feel free to email or call me with questions about these or any other Sonoma County properties.

Hopefully there will be some good munchies provided by the hosting agents since for some reason there are a pile of properties this week when there have been very few the last week or two. It is important for listing agents to incent their peers to tour their new listings, especially in a crowded field.

At one property last year (a country property listing of mine in Sebastopol) had so much going on that in order to convince agents to wait around and smell the roses, i.e. learn all the property had to offer, I had a masseur doing chair massages in one room, a lender pouring hot-mulled wine and apple cider in the kitchen, and bagels, lox and cream cheese for all. Two of us directed traffic and parking as well. I lost my voice after hours of tour-guiding. It was worth the effort because we had 3 offers the first week and sold for over asking to a buyer who is now very happy in his new country home. This in last year’s down market. What kind of creative broker tour incentives have you seen?

Anyway, I will report on the latest new West Sonoma County properties after tomorrow’s tour.

Heard on the Grapevine: In Healdsburg, I know of a great new listing coming up in early July–a classic Craftsman bungalow walking distance to the Healdsburg plaza. About 1600 sf with a new roof and paint, new deck and some interior updating, but a lot more room to improve (including the stand-up full length attic), or liveable and rentable now. It will be very competitively priced on a street with some gorgeous vintage homes. More info in the coming weeks.

Enjoy the lovely summer solstice week and tune back in for the tour and gravevine reviews and news. I also just received the latest Sonoma County Real Estate market stats so I plan to have a busy week of writing ahead. Headline: Sales continue to rise on the entry level of our market. Investors and first time buyers, and some first time investors (!) are out in force. Every day I receive an email report on the number of offers on bank-owned (REO) properties. Lots of multiple offers out there on the best ones with the best locations and best bones.

Anyway, my broker Rick Laws, just released May’s sales statistic for Sonoma County to us this morning and the sales up-tick we noted previously appears to be continuing or even accelerating. Add that to the big news that the number of new listings is actually down 14%. This is for all residential sales in Sonoma County at all price points. I have asked Rick for some additional breakdowns. This is a rough pass of the data because as Rick says, some of the sales reporting for last month can be a little late and dribble in over the first 10 days of the month, which is when he normally compiles the stats that you see in the Press Democrat.

Closed sales are up slightly over last year at this time. But even more interestingly, newly opened escrows (sales under contract but due to close in 1 to 2 months) are up 68 percent this year over last. Even if some fall out of escrow, that is a significant boost to a trend we first noted here in early March. Even more interestingly, new listings are down 14% over last year. So where do you think the market is heading?

Please click on the image above for a larger view.

Please click on the image above to see one that is actually readable!
The trend we first noted in February is continuing in Sonoma County Real Estate Sales, led by our entry level market of homes under $500,000. Not only is the number of new CLOSED sales up to the highest point in over two years, the number of newly opened escrows (UNDER CONTRACT above) is increasing even more rapidly, on pace to close next month.

Many of these homes are bank-owned (REO’s) or short sales and the buyers consist of investors and first time buyers or folks who are down-sizing. The number of newly opened escrows in this category is up 274% over last year at this time. While buyers think they can offer considerably lower than asking, that is not necessarily true. I just opened escrow for a client in this price range and we were able to get a great property that had been on the market for some time (not a foreclosure) and ridden the price trend down. The perils of overpricing in this case benefited my buyer who is in contract to purchase this home for 33% less than the original asking price, and 15% under the most recent price. But the REO’s are now priced to sell for the most part and attracting multiple offers. One of the best deals I saw in Montgomery Village last week at under $320,000 had four offers within a few days of coming on the market and still the bank had not selected which cherry offer to pick. But even if this property sells for slightly over asking, it is a great solid home (in need of much TLC) on a prime street and lot with surrounding homes that will love to see this one fixed up!

Perhaps the big thud we heard in Sonoma County last winter was the sound of the market hitting bottom. We shall see. More stats and opinions to come on other segments of the Sonoma County Real Estate market this week.

That is why I love the listing at 2210 Pleasant Hill Road in Sebastopol, and offered to Pamela Bernier, the listing agent, that I would hold it open this Sunday May 18 1-4 PM in the hopes that I might introduce the property to some folks looking for a lovely 2.6 acre parcel, home and small horse setup set way back near the end of a peaceful country lane. The entire home faces the rolling western hills of Sebastopol with panoramas of vineyards, orchards and distant redwoods. The acreage is very usable and would accommodate horses or livestock, an avid gardener or grape grower or just some folks who want to kick back on the decks at sunset and unwind in a their very own Shangri-la.

Come visit tomorrow and learn about this or other properties on the market, as well as current Sebastopol and Sonoma County real estate market trends. This last week I toured 11 new property listings on the market in Sebastopol, as well as others around the county, so I can fill you in!

Of the 404 active foreclosure listings in Sonoma County today, here is a snapshot overview. For a more detailed look, and information on specific properties available on your own private web portal, please contact me directly and I will email you a report.

Of the 404 properties available today, the average number of days they have been on the market is 63 days. Buyers on top of their game are jumping on the best properties in the best locations (surprise, surprise) and many are subject to multiple offers, but generally under asking price. Banks are sometimes offering concessions such as credits to closing costs for certain repairs, but it really depends on the property and the competitive landscape. Of these properties, the minimum price is $101, 200. The maximum price is $1,249,000. The median price is $309, 975, well below the median sales price for the county.

Click the link above to get to a Google Doc which breaks the foreclosure market down by area within Sonoma County. Cotati/Rohnert Park, parts of Santa Rosa, Windsor and East Petaluma are the most effected whereas communities such as Sebastopol and Healdsburg have very few foreclosure properties on the market. Also, the price points tend to be the lower ones with the median price at just over $300,000.

Sunday April 27th Update:

Just popping by to update yesterday’s post with a link to today’s article on the hardest hit parts of Sonoma County by Michael Coit of the Press Democrat.  I guess we are on the same wavelength today.

Foreclosure hot spots
Three of every five mortgage defaults last quarter occurred in three sections of Sonoma County

By MICHAEL COIT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

As colleague Marian Bennett on the San Mateo coastal front says in her blog:

Bottom line:  There are foreclosure properties out there, and probably more coming through the remainder of ‘08.  Buying such a property requires research, patience, ready cash…and a bit of a stomach!  Support of your team may be helpful to some and crucial for others (be it contractor, accountant, real estate professional, loan consultant, or parents).

If you’re interested in starting your own online research, I just got this tip from Kevin Boer about foreclosureradar.com.  I’ll be tracking it along with where I currently have an account, Realtytrac, to look for San Mateo County trends.  My Realtytrac research has shown their properties to be pretty out of date so I may try to find another one to use as a comparison to foreclosureradar.  If you know of another good one, make a comment to share with everyone.

By the way, colleague Sam Benson at Real Estate 680 in Contra Costa county is opining on the same subject.