At my office meeting yesterday, the management showed us the following slide presentation on foreclosures from ForeclosureRadar.com C.A.R. The presentation had some interesting facts for national foreclosures but broke it down for what is happening the Napa Valley areas including the Napa County and the City of Napa .

Here are few of the highlights, please note some the graphs may seem duplicated but both City of Napa and Napa County are included:

• Average time nationwide to foreclose is now 735 days
• Nationwide delinquencies, now 7.6% of housing stock, and foreclosures trending down
• 2.2 home nationwide under water and 900,000 homeowners have stopped making payments
• In California there are quite a few commercial foreclosures including 178 hotels and 1 cemetery/mortuary
• Foreclosure filings up in Napa County
• foreclosures inventories remaining stable in both Napa County and Napa City
• More properties going back to bank than being old to investors in Napa County

The City of Napa will increase their all water rates for the next five years. This is true of Yountville and St. Helena where water rates are nearly doubling. I guess for all who haven’t installed low flow toilets and other water saving devices, you might want to consider doing so sooner than later. From an article by Kelly Doran of the Napa Register:

If you get your water from Napa, it will cost you more to run your tap, keep  your lawn green, take a shower and flush a toilet.

The Napa City Council unanimously increased water rates in each of the next  five years Tuesday night and implemented a tiered billing structure, citing a  need to invest in deteriorating water infrastructure and meet conservation  mandates. The new rates and billing structure take effect Oct. 1.

Rates for all single-family residences within the city will go up and these  customers will be billed by a tiered rate structure, meaning those who use the  most water will pay the most per gallon. Customers living in areas of higher  elevations will see an increase in their pump surcharges as will those who have  fire hook-ups such as sprinklers or a fire hydrant on their property. The rates  for commercial, irrigation and outside city customers will also increase.

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com.

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.

My website & blog: www.NapaValleyAddress.com

This fits right in with my earlier post today, Upcoming Events in Yountville and Surrounding Napa Valley Areas October 28, 2011.

There was an article in last Saturday’s Napa Register by Jennifer Huffman about this which fits in nicely with my Upcoming Coming events. Here are a few excerpts to give you the idea of what they are doing. Go and have some fun. It is another thing the City of Napa is doing right these days.

A small group of downtown merchants have banded together in an effort to draw  more midweek business to their end of the city center.

Dubbed West End Wednesdays, the new weekly event begins this Wednesday.  Starting at 5 p.m., select stores will offer specials, discounts and other  promotions, said Elizabeth Cameron who recently opened a retail store, West End  Napa.

West End Napa opened in July and business has been good, she said. Even  though she’s located next to a hotel, the majority of her customers are locals,  said Cameron, who will be giving away a free burlap wine bag with a peacock  feather when the event kicks off.

Chalkboard easels at each participating business will alert pedestrians of  specials being offered inside.

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com.

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.

My website & blog: www.NapaValleyAddress.com

The City of Napa is holding its first Porchfest this Sunday when 28 historic homes will have more than 40 bands performing from their porches. The music will be a wide range of types from classical to bluegrass played from the porticoes of these homes in central Napa including many historical properties and all this for free. Just one of the groups see below, the Rhythm Cats, who are performing on porch #4 which is 411 Randolph Street which was constructed in 1860. Click here to see all the musicians and locations.

Listeners are encouraged to wander from street to street to take in the sounds, stopping at each venue to sample some of Napa’s finest homegrown musical talent. Genres include classical, punk, alternative rock, solo guitarists, reggae, techno and more. More than 120 musicians have signed up to play. For more info, www.NapaPorchfest.org.

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com.

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville

Rhythm Cats

The Rhythm Cats perform a mix of Rockabilly, Jump Blues and Swing music
with a healthy dose of showmanship thrown in. These Napa natives have been a mainstay
band around Napa since 1995, performing locally at: Uva
Trattoria, Downtown Joe’s, Silo’s and the Napa Downtown Chef’s Market.

Their music covers quite a range of styles and decades. Anything from
Elvis and Carl Perkins to the Blues Brothers to Pink Floyd get thrown in
the pot.

Performers

Bass Fiddle – Alan K. Parks

Rhythm Guitar – Jim Adamson

Lead Guitar – Mark Larson

www.TheRhythmCats.net

From the Napa Register

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com.

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.

The City of Napa Chefs’ Market is one of the best events held here in the Napa Valley. It is a truly fun time for all. The Chefs’ demonstration for this Thursday are by:  

6:30: Chris Aken with Avia Hotel

7:30: Greg Johnson with Zinsvalley

From the Napa register

The 2011 edition of downtown Napa’s Chefs Market – a weekly music festival-farmers market-dining adventure – debuts Thursday with a new layout and attractions.

Food trucks will be congregated on Randolph Street where one of the market’s three music stages will be located.

The children’s area is moving from Coombs Plaza to First Street near Franklin Street. This opens up Coombs Plaza for the farmers market, formerly on First.

The market runs from 5 to 9 p.m. every Thursday through Aug. 4.

There will be nightly cooking demonstrations at 6:30 and 7:30 next to the farmers market, with audiences able to match food samples with tastes of wine from downtown tasting rooms. Both are free of charge.

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com. 

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.

Thank you for reading this post. If I can ever be of help in finding you the perfect property here in the Napa Valley, please email me at Curtis@NapaValleyAddress.com. 

Your Broker Extraordinaire, selling Napa Valley Real Estate from its heart, Yountville.

This morning at my MLS (multiple listing service) meeting, John Tuteur, the Napa County Tax assessor, spoke to our group as he does about twice a year. He had some pretty amazing facts about the property tax assessments for Napa County. Here are a few of the highlights:

• California will have deflation for 2010 compared to 2009
• If your home was valued at $100,000 as of January 1, 2009 for property tax evaluations, it will be worth $99,764 January 1, 2010 for this valuation
• This is the first time in Napa County Tax Assessor’s recent history (since at least 1973) this has occurred
• Since Proposition 13 (property taxes can only increase by a max 2% in any tax year) was passed by the voters in 1978 only 5 years have had 1-2% increase, the remainder the max 2%
• 64% of the homes in American Canyon are in a decline of value status for property tax evalution compared to previous years
• This number is 26% in the City of Napa

Besides being a great speaker filled with great facts, John also maintains a number of great article on the Napa County web site which can be accessed here:

John Tuteur’s Property Tax Articles