A New York Times article by Michael Cooper goes into further detail.

In Santa Rosa Real Estate news the market inventory has definitely tightened up. It’s a little early yet but showings and inquiries for Luxury Homes are the highest in many years. I am receiving calls form agents throughout the county and Marin asking if I know of any new properties coming on the market.

One of our in house team of agents Charles Himes and Larry Tristano received 16 all cash offers on a fixer in Petaluma in early February of this year. The fact that ALL offers where cash is a very strong signal that the market could very well be on the road to recovery.

In another situation I was made aware that an offer of $30,000 above asking in a Fountain Grove home was not enough as another party offered more and put the home in contract.

Last fall I wrote in this blog that I believed that the Luxury Home Market values had bottomed in Sonoma County. With recent news of a pending Bank Deal with the State AG’s and the HARP 2 program that allows people to refinance with no CAP on the LTV (incredible) it certainly feels like the market could see some positive results this spring.

Unfortunately I do not have any Facebook employee friends….maybe I could Facebook Friend some of them….if I did I would be writing on their wall about what a great place Santa Rosa and Sonoma County are to spend some cash and buy a couple of homes for the price of one in Palo Alto.

I am not certain sometimes how the main street media gets the story so wrong especially regarding the direction of the Real Estate market in San Francisco. This particular blog lays out the statistics that shows a positive direction…..downing-co.com

Regarding the local Santa Rosa Luxury Home market other great news. I have been with Pacific Union Real Estate since the summer of 2000. A great brand representing the high end market.

This past week Mason McDuffie and Coralee Barkela the former owner of the local Pacific Union offices in Santa Rosa and Petaluma joined together to form a new local high end brand under the brand Wine Country Group of Better Homes and Gardens.

Now consisting of several hundred agents the Wine Country Group is poised to not only represent the interests of high end sellers and buyers but also have number of agents throughout all of Sonoma and Napa County that can easily service this clientele base.

Based on my experience of the past 11 years with the Pacific Union brand I am more than comfortable becoming part of the Wine Country Group as they also have the same tools and partnerships required to service the needs of clientele through ought all price ranges.

The addition of Santa Rosa and Petaluma now brings the total of 12 offices serving Sonoma and Napa counties. That’s what I call synergy !!  WineCountryGroup.com

I would like to personally thank Coralee Barkela as she was instrumental with my introduction to the high end clientele in Sonoma County that I currently work with. Her past 30 + years along with other agents has helped develop many of the high end properties in this county. This has helped pave the way for the rest of us to offer these properties to the local move up buyers and of course to new buyers moving into this most prized area of this Country. It is a very rare type of person that is an active agent to refer multi million dollar clientele when she could just as easily do this herself.

Thank You Coralee.

I remembered that LuxuryHome.pro does have an audience as several hundred visitors visit this site monthly of which a full 25% + are local. When I run an adwords campaign traffic triples. A few years ago most of the Traffic was coming from New York, now its San Francisco…..New York is #7 in visitor’s traffic and #2 is Santa Rosa.

The first half of 2011 sales results are in with the following statistics. $1.5 million – $5 million closed sales for Santa Rosa are up approximately 35% from the same period last year. In the $1.0 mil to $1.5 mil closed sales are down 40% from last year. Entry level closed sales 100k – 400k identical to last year.

Values are down year to year with a noticeable shortage of available inventory. I believe this to be Transitory as our friends in Washington are prepared to be accommodative if necessary and have taken steps and have made plans to “Tighten” monetary policy if necessary.

Looking at the Santa Rosa Crystal Ball so to speak…….I believe that the bottom in values is in…..and what we in the field like to use as a barometer is under contract and pending statistics that are UP and the fact that the number of buyers looking in the Million plus range is up considerably.

Only question is…will they pull the trigger? If they do delay it will only be Transitory.

Google Voice: 707-902-3139
Cell: 707-695-8811
Fax: 888-578-5677
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Gus Kyriakos
Pacific Union International
Santa Rosa Ca

Google Voice: 707-902-3139
Cell: 707-695-8811
Fax: 888-578-5677
[contact-form]

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In the US 2010 was definitely a buyers market as most buyers including the every affluent looked for good values. Though generally this group of buyers in the past simply bought what they wanted because they could afford to do so this recession has been so brutal that even the affluent either scaled back their purchases or in many cases looked for and got the most bang for their buck.

In Sonoma County this is very apparent in the 1 to 2 million dollar price range as the closed sales showed value purchases with an average sold price of  84.69 % of original list price. Average time on the market 6 months. A close look at the numbers reveals that the sellers that priced their home closest to what the market was willing to pay sold their homes with an average market time of 45 days at 100% of list. Out of 131 sales 12 of these homes sold for asking price.

Bay Area buyers are looking and buying if the price is right. Locally buyers are buying but many are sitting on the sidelines. Conversations with other agents led to remarks along the line of buyers not finding what they are looking for and overall inventory very light. Conversations I have had with buyers have led me to believe that some buyers are more motivated by price more than they are about finding the right home.

With interest rates on the rise and many sellers having taken their homes off the market it should be a very interesting spring market. If the Stock market continues on its upward path and rates staying firm or rising even slightly we could see price stability.  As I have repeated before a positive Jobs announcement would be a good sign for all regardless if you are a buyer or seller.

LuxuryHome.pro web site visitor statistics for 2010 show some very interesting trends. The first 6 months of the year my highest visitor count came from the following cities New York, Santa Rosa, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.

The last 6 months Santa Rosa with the most visitors by a margin of 3 to 1 followed by Oakland and San Francisco.

Internationally the following countries in order of the most visitors. 1) US 2) India 3)United Kingdom 4) China 5) Philippines 6) Turkey 7) Vietnam Thailand 9) Italy 10) Pakistan and 11) Canada followed by an additional 114 countries

On the upper upper nose bleed sections of Sonoma County prices 5+ million dollars the stories of multiple offers all cash continue.

However just a few days ago I called clients on a new listing that came on the market and I set up the showing. Great house great location and priced well north of one million dollars. My clients thought that the home had many of the qualities that they where looking for and decided to write an offer.

I notified the listing agent who informed me that there was serious interest from several parties. Armed with this information the clients and I got together and talked about an offering strategy. My input was requested and I recommended FULL price and ALL cash. The buyers went with my recommendation and understood that there would be competition.

The offer was presented on the second day the home was on the market. A total of FIVE offers where presented with several above asking and several all cash. Multiple offers in this price range is not a shock to me as the property was well priced but I must admit I was a little taken aback when informed of FIVE offers. You would think with all the inventory on the market how did that many buyers converge on this same home? If you are a seller of one of these homes you are probably thinking the same thing.

In a past post I wrote Santa Rosa Luxury Homes about other homes receiving multiple offers, that buyers where active, and understood fully the great values today in the market. If you are a buyer today in the high end market don’t be surprised if you run into competition. The buyers called me back yesterday and wanted to see a home at a higher price range that was on the market at the begining of the year, it had come off the market and back on.

It was a beautiful storming wet day, the sellers where kind enough to let us in and the listing agent met us at the home. Prior to the showing we where told that the sellers where in negotiations with a prospective buyer.

If the multiple offers continue and many homes come off the market for the holidays, we could be looking at sellers demanding more for their homes in the spring. If you are a seller and have a home with views, room for an art studio and an outside living space easily accessible from the home without stairs I  have the buyers. Prefer newer and in the Santa Rosa city limits. Price range up to 2 million. My cell 707-695-8811

The record sale price is the highest in the State since a 26.5 Million dollar sale in Bel-Air in 2009.  More details in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

International buyers are in the limelight as they are driving sales, with an exchange rate in their favor compounded by a %50 off sale they are looking at an opportunity unlike one they have ever seen before. Full details of this story can be read at  CNBC.com