Included here in its entirety, is the December 25th article in the Yountville Sun by its Editor, Sharon Stensaas. It truly gives one the sense why many come here to be satiated and entertained, but also to live here in this magically little town. Enjoy.

As visitor-dependent Napa Valley businesses brace for the full effects of the “slow sea­son,” which traditionally runs from December through February and into March, local businesspeople are sharing concerns that this off season will be considerably more “off” than usual because of the nation’s economic crisis.
But read some of the public­ity currently being circulated about Yountville, and it would seem this little village is posi­tioned to fare better than most in the weeks and months ahead. Yountville looks good in print.
Last week The EarthTimes released a story on Business Wire with the headline “Oasis in an Economic Downtown: Napa Valley’s YountvilleSports Silver Lining With Impressive Stats on Tourism; Estimated $100 Million in New Construction and Bo)ost in Room Rates.”
Earth Times, a news website that publishes reports on a wide variety of topics, opened its Yountville story as follows, “As the economy sizzles into the sea, one cityin Northern California is bucking the tourism trend with impressive results. As top destinations are struggling with falling occu­pancy and average daily room rates, this city located 55 miles northof San Francisco posted a $25,000 increase in transient occupancy tax revenue (TOT) for July/August ’08, annual 8.3 percent gain in average daily room rates and annualized occupancy rate of 75.6 percent which represents a minuscule 0.4 percent drop!”
It doesn’t stop there.
“In these tryingtimes, scur­rying for the competitive tourism dollar has translated into transport promotions, rock bottom room rates and added-value attractions driving most destinations. While there are always off-season deals to be had throughout Napa Valley and Yountville, this culinary bastion of just four square miles has quietly evolved into a textbook study of recession-proof marketing ..
“With nine hotels and six coveted Michelin stars, the town’s silver lining is due to a variety of factors, from careful master planned growthto a strong loyal. base of clientele and solid mix of group/leisure business. Add to that an esti­mated $100 million in new construction of hotels, restau­rants and renovations in 2008/2009, a recent Stardard & Poor’s AA+ rating (July /2008) due to strong local tourism ­based economy, exceptionally strong financial performance and dedicated revenue stream from the town’s TOT, and the message is clear: This is the Little Town that Could.”
Yountville’s key survival techniques were identified as “an aggressive marketing com­munications program posi­tioning Yountville as the West Coast’s top epicurean and favorable ‘green touring’ option linking all visitor assets via walking or biking.”
Intervicewed by Earth News for the story were Mayor Cindy Saucerman, Town Manager Steve Rogers and Villagio Inri’s Director of Sales and Marketing Steve Andrews.
If Yountvilleis being seen as green, it is about to get even greener in the New Year, with the planned opening of the Bardessono inn on February 2.
While these 62 inn units are yet to be experienced first­hand, the application of green features have already attracted ink in a number of building industry publications, and the public relations firm handling the property is positioning it as “Amedca’s Greenest Luxury Hotel.”
Aspiring to achieve Platinum LEED Certification for the inn, eco-developer Phil Sherburne, as his publicity describes him, wants to erase the notion that being green involves “wearing a sack-cloth coat.” His concept is that the highly personal nature of Bardessono hospitality may be nurturing and restorative.
The property will get approximately half of its electricity from a 200-kilowatt photovoltaic solar system dis­cretely mounted and con­cealed on the inn’s flat-topped roofs.
To heat and cool guest rooms as well as the property’s domestic water supply, a sys­temof 82, 300-foot geothermal wells were drilled to work witha specially developed ground source heat pump system.
“Up-cycled” materials are being incorporated throughout the new inn, and they include recycled steel, green glass tiles and fly ash concrete. (Fly ash, a glass-like powder recovered from gases created by goal ­fired electric power genera­tion, is a recyclable material often ued as a replacement for Portland cement.)
Locally-sourced and sal­vaged Monterey Cypress, Walnut, Redwood, Eucalyptus and California Bay Laurel wood is being used for every­thing from siding and ceiling beams to furniture and bath­room flooring.
The hotel’s entry features local stone salvaged and recut from the Bardessono family’s original homestead.
Meanwhile, Thomas Keller’s name and stellar repu­tation on the international stage of culinary arts, continue to generate so much media the YountvilleChamber of Commerce suspended its clip­ping service several years ago because it couldn’t afford to pay for the constant blizzard of clippings Keller generated with a Yountville mention. (A clipping service tracks mentions of a specific word or words for its clients by clip­ping the stories bearing those words from thousands of pub­lications of all types from around the globe. Clients gen­erally are charged a basic fee as well as a certain amount for each clip containing the word or words it has specified.)
And Keller is developing his own green profile. In May he will be honored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the Conservation Leadership Award at the Cooking for Solutions celebration for his efforts in promoting food prac­tices that protect the health of the ocean and the soil.
And more local publicityis sure to come from the Keller organizationnext month, when French Laundry sous chef Tim Hollingsworth goes to Lyon, France, as the first American to compete in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or World Cuisine Contest.
Whether this proliferation of publicity will actually pro­pel paying customers into local inns, restaurants, galleries, tasting rooms and shops remains to be seen, but tiny Yountville is generating more than its proportionate share of industry ink.

Bay Area home sales median has sunk to a new 8 year low and 47.6% of all sales have been foreclosed on sometime over the last 12 months according to the new DQNews.com data released today.

Bay Area home sales decelerated in November but beat the year-ago mark for the third consecutive month. The allure of discounted foreclosures continued to drive sales in affordable inland markets, which helped push the median sale price down to its lowest point since former President Bill Clinton was in the White House.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in the nine-county Bay Area fell to $350,000 last month. That was down 6.7 percent from $375,000 in October and down a record 44.4 percent from $629,000 in November 2007, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.

The November median sale price – the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less – stood at its lowest since it was $350,000 in September 2000. It was 47.4 percent below the peak median of $665,000 reached last year in June, July and August.

The median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 12 consecutive months, yanked lower by several factors: price depreciation; a shift toward more sales in the less-expensive inland markets; slower high-end sales; and buyers’ preference for lower-priced foreclosures.

Last month 47.6 percent of all homes that resold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months, up from 44.0 percent in October and 10.1 percent a year ago.

At the county level, foreclosure resales last month ranged from 10.0 percent of resales in San Francisco to 63.6 percent in Solano County. In the other seven counties, November foreclosure resales were as follows: Alameda, 44.4 percent; Contra Costa, 63.0 percent; Marin, 22.6 percent; Napa, 40.8 percent; Santa Clara, 38.9 percent; San Mateo, 21.8 percent; Sonoma, 51.6 percent.

My sense is this is true for Napa County as well even though the statistics show the home sales for previously foreclosed homes to be 40.8%. In one recent MLS search for a first time home buyer with a maximum purchase price of $250,000, 19 of 37 homes and condos in the City of Napa were previous foreclosures, 51.1% and another 13 were short sales, a 86.5% total for all distressed sales. And as a Realtor working in the trenches every day, I haven’t seen any sign of this changing yet. I will keep you informed when I do.

Series #6 Purchasing real estate in Mexico, for the most part, is a good investment

kitchen counter and prep area

             If you’ve been following my series, let’s cut to the chase.  By now, I’m sure you want to know how much it costs to build in Mexico versus the United States. A lot depends on where in Mexico you build and the quality of materials you select.

            When we first arrived in San Miguel de Allende in May 2005, the average per square foot cost for new construction was $65. But like the states, that number has continued to escalate following the devastation of hurricane Katrina, ever rising transportation costs and the increased demand for construction materials to rebuild New Orleans and the many Olympic stadiums in China needed to host the 2008 summer Olympics. In our case, our land cost was $110,000 for a 250 m2 or 5,000 square foot property. Our construction costs ran $300,000 to build 3691 share feet of livable space plus 1917 square feel of outdoor living area which includes a center courtyard, two terraces and a rooftop patio bringing the total construction area to 5608 square feet. We paid an additional $40,000 in architectural fees and $20,000 for professional Viking appliances which retail for twice that. Because my husband is a Viking employee, we were able to purchase these products at cost.

living room entertaining area

             So given these figures, if we compute our square foot cost based on our total area ($470,000 ٪5608), our cost was $83.88 per square foot compared to $127.33 if we only consider the enclosed livable space. To make an accurate comparison with the United States, I asked Curtis Van Carter to provide square foot costs in Napa for the cheapest construction, for an average custom home and for high-end luxury properties. For a basic, simply constructed condo in Napa, average square foot costs range between $150-$200, for an average custom home from $400-$500 and for luxury properties from $1500-$2000. He estimated our custom designed Mexico home would run about $500 per square foot in Napa, or almost six times higher than SMA. Furthermore, our property taxes here are only $250 a year compared to an estimated $7,500 for a similar home in Napa.

            Keep in mind, we choose top end plumbing fixtures, appliances and even custom designed our sinks made of copper and hand hewed pulido. We also have three kitchens: one in the main house, a 600 square foot teaching kitchen in the center of our complex and a small efficiency kitchen in one of our guest rooms or casitas. Add to that 3.5 bathrooms, three bedrooms and a two bedroom guest house/casita and you can see that you get a lot for your money in Mexico.

living room

            In reality, I believe we could have saved on construction costs if we hadn’t chose to build in stages. Over those three years, construction costs rose and we weren’t efficient using our construction crew stopping and starting the project twice. What took three years to build could have been compressed to 1.5 or 2 years at the most if we stayed on schedule.

            So if you ever contemplated moving or building here, for me, it’s been a worthwhile investment. According to one local builder, in this down market, our home should sell for a minimum of $650,000. A year ago, it would be valued $100,000 more, but like NapaValley and the U.S., the market for outside investors is also down in SMA.

main kitchen

            Now that you’ve heard my story, I’d like to end with some lessons learned that hopefully will make your building experience in Mexico more enjoyable.

1)      If you plan to make SMA your permanent home, rent for a minimum of one month first before making that decision. For some—like my husband—SMA is better as a half time residence. He still longs for Napa….the food and wine experience just isn’t the same here, so make sure you are truly ready for that change before committing permanently.

2)      Don’t live on site while your property is being developed. Monthly rentals are relatively cheap here. Spend the extra $350-$500 a month and rent a place nearby that allows you to supervise construction without being consumed by it.

interior stairway

3)      Don’t apply for your FM3—which allows you to bring your belongings into Mexico one time in the first six months without import taxes–until your property is complete. We brought ours in early and incurred rain damage. Better yet, just buy new furnishings here.

4)      Check out your neighbors before buying. We discovered after purchasing our property that the rear wall of our home backs up to the largest hierro/iron worker in town. On some days, when he is pounding on his anvil, our teaching kitchen reverberates from the concussion and it can be hard to hear and hard to take. On those days, we run our fountain at full blast.

5)      When choosing between Cal (a traditional water color like pigment used here for centuries) versus modern oil based paint, choose the latter. While we wanted to keep with tradition using Cal, each time it rains the color of our home also goes down the drain.

living room and entertaining area

6)      There are many wonderful artisans in Mexico willing to custom make anything from your floor tiles to your lights and plumbing fixtures. We choose a beautiful hand painted floor for our teaching kitchen that looks much like a carpet. And while we love it and would make the same choice again, we had to accept that the tile colors varied from piece to piece and it was even harder to seal them without some discoloration. Be prepared to accept this fact or choose something prefab.

7)      Caulk is the one product that holds all the homes together in SMA. So if you are moving here from the U.S., bring as much as you can carry to seal your doors and windows as you won’t find an equilivant performing product here in Mexico.

For more information on properties for sale here, contact Curtis Van Carter or drop me an email at insideroute@aol.com. Better yet, stop by for a visit on your next trip here.

Buen Dia!!!!!!!!!!!