Wine Country Group Results for February 2012:

The Wine Country Group by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate had 72 closings this February compared to 58 in February 2011.  Our dollar volume was $26 million compared to $18.2 million last year.  Our Sebastopol office led our offices with 27 closings while the Santa Rosa office had 18, Sonoma 13, and Healdsburg 10.  Our average closing sales price was $365,411 comparing to $314,849 a year ago, so that’s a good improvement in average sales price.  Our escrow openings totaled 87 units, which is the highest for the Wine Country Group for any February since we’ve kept records (1999).  We had 38 new listings compared to 32 a year ago.

The Wine Country Group currently has 112 pending sales with a value of $70 million dollars which is the highest level of pending dollar volume for the past twelve months..  We have 200 active listings with a value of $161 million dollars.  That’s an average listing price of $805,000.

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

February, 2012 – Wine Country Real Estate Market Analysis

Sonoma County Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (1,047) in Sonoma County at the end of February was 48% lower than last year (2,011) and 5% lower than the supply last month (1,098).  This is the lowest level of inventory of available homes in the County since March of 2005, seven years ago.  New sales in February (673) were 49.2% ahead of the pace in February 2011 (451) and they were 22% ahead of the pace of last month (552).  This is the highest level of sales for any month since July 2005.  To have this sales pace in February is extraordinary.  There is only a 1.6 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 February in Sonoma County was $300,000 and was equal to homes sold a year ago. Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 29% of the available inventory, 60% of new sales and 51% of closings for the month.  There is only 0.8 months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.  This is the highest level of distressed property sales in any month for which we have data.  It almost appears that there is a rush to purchase these distressed homes before supply dries up.  The median price of the distressed homes sold in February 2012 was $254,000 compared to $271,000 a year ago.

Cloverdale Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale in Cloverdale (39) at the end of February 2012 was 48% below that of a year ago (75) and was 7% below the inventory last month (42).  Sales for the month of February (19) were 12% ahead of the pace of a year ago (17) and were slightly ahead of the new sales reported last month (16).  There is a 2.1 months supply of available inventory in Cloverdale based on the current pace of new sales.  31% of the inventory is distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), 58% of the new sales and 60% of the closings for the month are distressed properties.

Healdsburg Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (75) in Healdsburg at the end of February was down 19.4% from that of last year (93) and down slightly from last month (78).  New sales (23) were up 35% from the 17 new sales in February 2011 and up 28% from the 18 sales last month.  There is a 3.3 months supply of inventory in Healdsburg based on the current sales pace and that is the lowest level in the past two years.  Only 8% of the inventory in Healdsburg consists of “distressed properties” (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), but 30% of the new sales were distressed properties and 25% of the closings were distressed properties.  There is less than a one months supply of inventory based on the inventory and sales pace of distressed properties.

Petaluma: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (91) in Petaluma at the end of February was 63% lower than a year ago (246) and was 21.6% lower than the supply last month (116).  This is the lowest level of inventory in Petaluma since February of 2005, seven years ago.  New sales in February (88) were 126% ahead of the pace in February 2011 (39) and they were 22% ahead of the pace of last month (72).  This is the highest rate of sales for any month in Petaluma since August of 2005.  There is only a one months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace – an indication of a “seller’s” market. Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 26% of the available inventory, 60% of new sales and 53% of closings for the month.

Santa Rosa: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (361) in Santa Rosa at the end of February was 54% lower than a year ago (781) and about the same as the supply last month (368).  This is the lowest level of inventory in Santa Rosa since February 2005, seven years ago.  New sales in February (285) were 38% ahead of the pace in February 2011 (208) and they were 21% ahead of the pace of last month (237).   This is the highest level of new sales for Santa Rosa for any month since June 2005.  There is only 1.3 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace – an indication a “seller’s market”.  The median price of homes closed in January in Santa Rosa was $276,000 compared to $280,000 a year ago.  Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) make up 38.5% of the available inventory, 59% of new sales and 52% of closings for the month. There is only 0.8 months supply of distressed properties available.

Sebastopol Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (66) in Sebastopol at the end of February was 31.2% below that of February 2011 (96) and it was equal to that of last two months.  This is the lowest level of available homes for sale in Sebastopol since March 2005.  There were 27 new sales for the month.  This is 68.8% ahead of the pace of a year ago (16) and equal to the pace of last month.  There is just a 2.4 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  Distressed properties represent 11% of the inventory, 52% of the new sales for the month and 20% of the closings.  There is just a one half months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.

Sonoma Valley Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale (138) at the end of February in the Sonoma Valley (Sonoma, Glen Ellen and Kenwood) was down 34.6% from the month of February 2011 (211).  It was 4% lower than that of a month ago (144).  This is the lowest level of inventory since April 2005. There were 60 new sales for the month.  That is 68% higher than that of a year ago (36) and 15% ahead of that of last month (52).  There is currently a 2.3 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  The median price of the homes closed (38) in the Valley in February was $435,000, 12% higher than the median price in February 2011 ($388,000).  Distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) in the Sonoma Valley in February (31) represent 14% of the inventory, 52% of the new sales and 42% of the closings.  There is only a one half months supply of distressed properties available based on the current sales pace.

Windsor Trends: The inventory of homes for sale in Windsor (54) at the end of February was 50.5% lower than the inventory (109) in February 2011 and was equal to the 55 units available last month.  This is the lowest inventory in Windsor since May 2005.  There were 48 new sales of homes and condominiums in Windsor in February, which is 30% higher than the 37 sales in February of 2011 and 33.3% ahead of sales last month (36).  This is the highest pace of sales in Windsor since March of 2005, seven years ago.  There is just a 1.1 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace.  58% of the available inventory is distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure) while 67% of the new sales and 73% 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.

Napa County Trends: The inventory of homes and condominiums for sale at the end of February in Napa County (453) was 42% below the inventory (780) at this time last year and was 3.4% lower than the inventory in January (469).  This is the lowest inventory in Napa County since March 2005.  New sales (173) were 39.5% ahead of the pace of a year ago (124) and 9.5% ahead of that of last month (158).  The months of inventory available at the current sales pace is 2.6 months – a sign of a balanced market.  The median price of homes sold ($345,000) was 1.5% higher than the median price of a year ago ($340,000).  20% of the current listings in Napa County are distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure).  56% of the new sales and 52% of the closed sales for the month are distressed properties.  There is only a 0.9 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 (246) is off 46.5% from a year ago (460), the lowest level since March 2005, seven years ago.  New sales (116) are 36.5% ahead of a year ago and there is 2.1 months of available inventory at the current sales pace.  The median price for homes closed in Napa in the month of February was $345,000, the same as a year ago and generally in trend with the 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, Rutherford, St. Helena and Yountville), inventory at the end of February was 146 units, down 26.6% from 199 a year ago and up slightly from last month.   This reverses a six-month trend of reduced inventory.  There were 20 new sales in the month of February compared to 10 in February of last year and 15 in January.  Just 13% of the inventory consists of distressed properties (bank-owned, short sale or foreclosure), 25% (5) of the new sales for the month were distressed properties and 25% of the closed sales were distressed properties.  These are lower ratios than most Wine Country markets.

Closings: The following agents enjoyed closings for the period from February 1 to February 29, 2011:

In our Healdsburg office:  Ann Amtower and Penelope La Montagne had two closings each;  Debbie Adler, Beth Bruno, Michael Downes, Hank Lane, Debbie Hendershot, Betty Hagedon and Dee Grohmann each had a closing.

In our Napa office:  Lark Raymond, Nick Simone and Tressa Anderson each enjoyed a closing.

In our Santa Rosa offices:  Larry Tristano and Charles Himes enjoyed three closings;  Coralee Barkela, David Poulsen and Jim Famini had two closings each; and Tommy Apostilides, Jane Duggan, Suzanne Drace, Deborah Gray, Gus Kyriakos, Donald Hamilton, Sharon Hamilton and Yonghee Jang each had a closing.

In our Sebastopol office:  Gene Bonino and Will Brown had three closings;  Liz Uribe, Jeff Seligson, Pauline Pellini, Lori Sacco, Deborah Melancon, and Pam Buda had two closings each;  and, Bill Cole, Lisa Dawson, Timothy Hedges, Connie McCullough, Kaye Henzerling, Gloria Epperson, Lindsey and Gary Kennedy, Allison Pharis, and Doug Schaeffer and Cary Fargo each had a closing.

In our Sonoma office:  Erin George and Erick Rothfeld both enjoyed three closings;  Joyce Davison enjoyed two closings;  and, David Kerr, Mari Johnson, Shanis Nelson, Pam Giusto and Mike Caselli each had a closing.

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

Congratulations to all!