Wine Country Real Estate Trends

Wine Country Group Results for May 2012:

The Wine Country Group had 92.5 closings this May compared to 63 in May 2011.  Our dollar volume was $45 million compared to $28 million last year.  This is the highest number of closings that we have had in any May since our founding in 1996.  We did exceed this dollar volume in May 2004 when prices were much higher.  Our Sonoma office led our offices with 27.5 closings while the Sebastopol office had 24, the Healdsburg office had 17 and the Santa Rosa office had 16.  Our average closing sales price was $486,209 comparing to $446,059 a year ago, so that’s an improvement of 9% in average sales price.  Our escrow openings totaled 100 units compared to 45 last year and we had 45 new listings compared to 47 a year ago.

The Wine Country Group currently has 106 pending sales with a value of $56 million dollars which is ahead of the pending dollar volume of a year ago.  We have 175 active listings with a value of $135 million dollars.  That’s an average listing price of $772,000.

The Wine Country Group currently enjoys number one market share (in either (or both) units and dollar volume) in our Cloverdale, Healdsburg, and Sebastopol markets.  We are the fourth largest real estate firm in Sonoma and Napa Counties based on the last twelve months of dollar volume of sales.

May, 2012 – Wine Country Real Estate Market Analysis

Sonoma County Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (1035) in Sonoma County at the end of May was 53% lower than last year (2,180) and 4.5% higher than the supply last month (990).  This is the first up-tick in inventory since April of last year.  We have been waiting for more units to come on the market.  New sales in May (728) were 30% ahead of the pace in May 2011 (561) and they were 14% ahead of the pace of last month (640).  Closings for the month totaled 559 units.  This is the highest number of closed sales for any month since September 2005, seven years ago.  There is only a 1.4 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace – a continuing indication of what we would normally call a strong “seller’s market”.  The median price of homes closed in May in Sonoma County was $309,000 and was slightly lower than the average price of homes sold a year ago. Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 14% of the available inventory (continuing to decrease).  The 148 distressed units available at the end of May was the lowest level for any month in the last five years.  44% of new sales and 45% of closings for the month were distressed properties.  There is only a one half months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.  The median price of the distressed homes sold in the month was $250,000, 6% ahead of last year.

Cloverdale Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale in Cloverdale (35) at the end of May 2012 was 55% below that of a year ago (78) and was roughly equal to the inventory last month (39).  Sales for the month of May (19) were 73% ahead of the pace of a year ago (11) and were slightly ahead of the new sales reported last month (17).  There is a 1.8 months supply of available inventory in Cloverdale based on the current pace of new sales.  Only 14% of the inventory is distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), 37% of the new sales and 41% of the closings for the month are distressed properties.

Healdsburg Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (86) in Healdsburg at the end of May was down 42% from that of last year (148) and 19% ahead of that of last month (72).  New sales (29) were up 53% from the 19 new sales in May 2011 and up 71% from the 17 sales last month.  There is a 3 months supply of inventory in Healdsburg based on the current sales pace.  Only 3% of the inventory in Healdsburg consists of “distressed properties” (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), but 38% of the new sales were distressed properties and 30% of the closings were distressed properties.  There is a 0.3 months supply of inventory based on the inventory and sales pace of distressed properties.  These are the lowest ratios of distressed properties in all of Wine Country.

Petaluma: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (102) in Petaluma at the end of May was 60% lower than a year ago (253) and was 9.8% higher than the supply last month (93).  New sales in May (85) were 18% higher than that of the pace in May 2011 (72) and they were 16% higher than the pace of last month (73).  There is only a 1.2 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 13% of the available inventory, 43% of new sales and 45% of closings for the month.

Santa Rosa: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (292) in Santa Rosa at the end of May was 62% lower than a year ago (776) and 9% lower than the supply last month (320).  This is the lowest level of inventory in Santa Rosa since December 2004.  New sales in May (324) were 40% ahead of the pace in May 2011 (231) and they were 15% ahead of the pace of last month (282).  This is the highest level of new sales for any month in Santa Rosa since May 2005.  New sales exceeded inventory, creating a 0.9 months supply of available homes.  The median price of homes closed in May in Santa Rosa was $285,000 compared to $286,000 a year ago.  Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 20% of the available inventory, 48% of new sales and 50% of closings for the month. There is only one half months supply of distressed properties available.

Sebastopol Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (85) in Sebastopol at the end of May was 31% lower than that of May 2011 (123) and it was 20% higher than that of last month (71).  There were 37 new sales for the month.  This is 23% ahead of the pace of a year ago (30) and equal to the pace of the last month (39).  There is a 2.3 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  Distressed properties represent 12% of the inventory, 29% of the new sales for the month and 29% of the closings.  There is just 0.9 months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.

Sonoma Valley Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (157) at the end of May in the Sonoma Valley (Sonoma, Glen Ellen and Kenwood) was down 43% from the month of May 2011 (274).  It was 14.6% ahead of a month ago (137).  This is the first real tick-up in inventory since March 2011.  There were 84 new sales for the month.  This is 61.5% higher than that of a year ago (52) and 40% ahead of that of last month (60).  This is the highest level of new sales in the Sonoma Valley since March 2004 when there were 107.  It is the second highest number of sales in the Sonoma Valley for any month in the past twelve years.  There is currently a 1.9 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace. Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) in the Sonoma Valley in May represent 11% of the inventory, 35% of the new sales and 31% of the closings.  The impact of distressed sales on the market continues to decline and there is only a 0.6% months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.

Windsor Trends: The inventory of homes for sale in Windsor (36) at the end of May was 67% lower than the inventory (108) in May 2011 and was equal to the 34 units available last month.  This is the lowest inventory in Windsor since February 2005.  There were 37 new sales of homes and condominiums in Windsor in May, which is 18% lower than the 45 sales in May of 2011 and 36% lower than the sales last month (58).  There is just a one months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  33% of the available inventory is distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) while 54% of the new sales and 51% of the closings for the month are distressed properties.  The market seems to be rapidly absorbing all distressed properties that come on the market each month and not much conventional product is coming to the market.

Napa County Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale at the end of May in Napa County (481) was 39% below the inventory (786) at this time last year and was 4% higher than the inventory in April (464).  New sales (193) were 12% ahead of the pace of a year ago (172) and 8% ahead of the pace of last month (179).  There were 156 closings in Napa County in May.  This is the highest number of closings for any month going back to August 2005, seven years ago.  The months of inventory available at the current sales pace is 2.5 months.  The median price of homes closed ($348,000) was essentially equal to the median price of a year ago ($346,000).  12% of the current listings in Napa County are distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure).  46% of the new sales and 44% of the closed sales for the month are distressed properties.  There is only a 0.6 months supply of distressed properties on the market based on the current sales pace.

The City of Napa figures generally mirror the County figures.  The inventory (277) is off 37% from a year ago (438).  New sales (115) are 3.6% ahead of a year ago (111) and 7.5% ahead of that of last month (107).  There is 2.4 months of available inventory at the current sales pace.  The median price for homes closed in Napa in the month of May was $355,000, just 2% ahead of a year ago ($349,000) but ahead of the median prices over the past twelve months.  The City has similar ratios with regard to the impact of distressed properties on the market.  There is only a 0.6 months supply of distressed properties.

St. Helena/Up Valley Trends: The St. Helena/Up Valley market (Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena and Yountville), inventory at the end of May was 160 units, down 30% from 228 a year ago and up 7% from last month (149).  There were 27 new sales in the month of May compared to 26 in May of last year and 32 in April.  The Up Valley market continues to show improvement.  Just 6% of the inventory consists of distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), 26% (7) of the new sales for the month were distressed properties and 7% of the closed sales were distressed properties.

Closings: The following agents enjoyed closings for the period from May 1 to May 31, 2012:

In our Cloverdale office, Ron and Jane Pavelka had two closings.

In our Healdsburg office:  Penelope La Montagne was busy with five closings;  Ann Amtower had four closings;  Deke Dekay and Diane Harris had three closings;  Michael Downes and Nicki Rector had two closings each; and Hank Lane, Ken Scharer, Patty Van Deren and Elissa Morrash each had a closing.

In our Napa office:  Adam Ghisletta enjoyed a closing.

In our Petaluma office:  Shawn Macaulay and Patty Moore each enjoyed two closings; and Charlotte Minahan had a closing.

In our Santa Rosa offices:  Larry Tristano and Charles Himes and Tommy Apostiolides enjoyed three closings;  Carlos Rivas and Mark Payne of Mason McDuffie Commercial Real Estate had two closings each; and Donald Hamilton, Suzanne Drace, Deborah Gray, Tom Shula, Gus Kyriakos, Cheri Johnke, Christine Hamilton, and Jane Duggan each had a closing.

In our Sebastopol office:  Doug Schaeffer and Cary Fargo enjoyed four closings;  Lori Sacco, Rita DeSouza, Laurie Parris and Bill Cole had three closings each;  Jeffrey Seligson, and Sarah Seitchik had two closings each; and Chris Nelson, Gene Bonino and Will Brown, Sandie Schach, Norbert Tenenbaum, Liz Uribe and Lisa Dawson each had a closing.

In our Sonoma office:  Diane Litchfield enjoyed four closings;  Sheila Deignan and Mike Caselli had three closings each;  Diane Krause, Herb Heil, Michael Crain, Erin George, David Kerr and Mari Johnson each had two closings; and Rob Jones, Leo Merle, Shanis Nelson, Pam Giusto, Joyce Davison, Tish Thames and Frank Lazzarotto each had a closing.

And, in our St. Helena office:  Linda Alioto and Liz Manfree each had a closing for this period.

Congratulations to all!