Wine Country Real Estate Trends: April Recap

Sonoma Valley: The number of available homes and condominiums for sale (113) in the Sonoma Valley (Sonoma, Glen Ellen and Kenwood) at the end of April rose for the fourth straight month. Still, inventory was 19 percent below the level of last April (140) but it was 19 percent ahead of the inventory of last month (95). Sales also rose for the fourth straight month. There were 72 new sales for the month. This is 6 percent ahead of the pace of sales in April 2014 (68) and it is 24 percent ahead of the pace of last month (58). There is just a 1.6 months supply of inventory in Sonoma based on the current pace of sales.

The Days on Market for the 54 closed sales in Sonoma in April was 65 days compared to 56 a year ago and 62 last month. 51 percent of the inventory in the Sonoma Valley is priced at $1,000,000 or above. The high-end market was active in the Sonoma Valley in the past month. The inventory of homes priced in excess of $3,000,000 rose to 19 from nine a month ago. In April of this year there were four sales of these homes while a year ago there was just one sale. The four sales in excess of $3,000,000 in April all received offers within two weeks of going on the market.

Sonoma County: The inventory of single-family homes and condominiums for sale in Sonoma County at the end of April continued to climb. It stood at 772 homes compared to 685 last month and 768 a year ago. This is a .5 percent increase on a year over year basis. New sales (617) in April were 25 percent ahead of that of last April (493) and were 19 percent ahead of the pace of last month (520). There is just a 1.3 months supply of inventory in Sonoma County based on the current sales pace.

The time it takes to sell a home in Sonoma County (Days on Market) dropped to 55 days compared to 66 a year ago and 65 last month. The median price of the 487 homes closed in April in Sonoma County was $510,000. This is a 16% increase over the median price in April 2014 ($440,000). This is a bigger jump in median price than we have been seeing over the past twelve months. The current median price is 13 percent below the peak median price for the County ($589,000) recorded in June 2005.

Sonoma County Luxury Homes: About one quarter of the inventory in Sonoma County can be characterized as Luxury Homes (listing price in excess of $1,200,000). There has been a 17 percent increase in the number of Luxury Homes closed (289) from 5/1/14 to 4/30/15 compared to 246 from 5/1/13 to 4/30/14. There were 198 luxury properties in inventory at the end of April compared to 164 last month and 159 a year ago. Days on Market for the 30 Luxury Homes that closed in April was 57 days compared to 88 days a year ago. There is a 4.3 months supply of Luxury Homes based on the current sales pace.

Napa County: The inventory of homes and condominiums available for sale rose for the third month in a row. The inventory (354) is 10% below the inventory in April 2014 (392) and 19% ahead of the inventory last month (297). New sales rose for the fourth month in a row. They totaled 164 homes and were 43 percent ahead of the pace last year (115) and 11% ahead of the pace of last month (148). There is a 2.2 months supply of inventory compared to a 4 months supply at the end of December. The Days on Market for the 120 homes closed in April was 96 days compared to 64 days a year ago and 83 days last month.

The median price of homes closed in April in Napa County ($597,000) was 24% ahead of the median price of a year ago ($481,000) and was the highest median price since November of 2007. The current median price is 12% below the peak median price for the County ($675,000) recorded in June 2006. It will be interesting to see if this median price is approached in the next several months.

Napa County Luxury Homes: The sales of Luxury Homes (sales price in excess of $1,800,000) in Napa County are about the same for the period 5/1/14 to 4/30/15 (79) compared to 5/1/13 to 4/30/14 (76). There were 89 luxury homes in inventory at the end of April 2015 compared to 97 at the end of April 2014. There is a 12.7 months supply of available Luxury Homes based on the current sales pace compared to 12.1 months supply last year in April. The Napa County Luxury Home market is not as robust as the Sonoma County Luxury Home market at the present time.