Yountville 2008 Real Estate, The Year in Review

Comments

1. Tracy says

   January 31, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   Hi, Thanks for the info, very interesting stats. do you think demand may increase in the coming months as people are thinking about investing into the housing market in Napa Valley rather than money market/wall st/bonds? thx, tracy

   Reply

   • Curtis Van Carter says

     February 1, 2009 at 2:57 pm

     Tracy
     Napa Valley is a very unique place, thus prices are higher than many other areas in California. Prices are less here than in Carmel, Santa Barbara or the San Diego coast areas, but high enough to not make the best sense for investment properties. In Yountville and St. Helena one needs to put 50% down for most properties to break-even as rentals. I have always used as a rule of thumb, it a very good buy if you can do this with 20% down. The saving grace, there is a limited amount of property here and it is a true enclave which tends to have better and more stable appreciation than many other areas. Plus, if you have to ever move into one of your rentals, there are very few better places I would rather be.
     Demand in most areas of the Napa Valley is still being driven by price with foreclsures/distressed sales representing about 50% of all sales. It feels to me we are close to an equilibrium now, thus I don’t expect a great increase in the demand for the next 4-6 months. It is truly a good time to look to buy and the Napa Valley is no exception just with it own nuances. Please feel free to contact me directly if you would like to go into this more. Curtis

     Reply