A San Diego Wine Tasting Event
January 4th, 2009 Categories: San Diego Events San Marcos
Wine Tasting at North County Wine Company
I am a San Diego real estate agent by trade, a wine follower by passion, and can’t resist sharing new wine finds on either San Diego Previews or, more commonly on our sister site Luxury Home Digest. I also love travel, and what could make a better trip than one involving California vineyards?
Last November, we went to Sonoma for their annual Russian River Wine Road (thanks to a tip from Twitter wine buddy Thea Dwelle aka @winebrat), where we visited a long list of must-stop wineries. One of those trips included Truett Hurst Winery located in Dry Creek Valley. We all really loved their wines–especially the Zinfandels, and I even purchased some of their futures.
Several weeks ago I bumped into Jim Morris, general manager for Truett Hurst, on that social media site Twitter. I immediately followed his upodates and complimented him on his winery and wines. He mentioned that he would be down in the San Diego area after Christmas visiting relatives, and would love to set up a wine tasting event for me and my grateful friends at the North County Wine Company in San Marcos.
Jim brought down five Truett Hurst wines for our group of 35-40 to taste:
2006 Red Rooster Zinfandel (a favorite with many)
2006 Rattler Rock Zinfandel (my personal favorite; jammy, fruity nose, lush, great finish!)
2006 Three Vineyards Zinfandel (complex, rich, with lovely finish–beautiful with roasted meats)
2006 Burning Man Petite Sirah (think Red Velvet; deep scarlet color, peppery fruit, rich, intense, a WOW!)
2005 Dessert Wine had a huge cheering section. Perfect with goat cheese dessert. One to savor….
Truet Hurst Vineyard is biodynamic and is working to become a self-sufficient biosystem. Chickens, goats, cows, insect and vegetable gardens work together for a near-total organic experience. Each of the vines in this earth-friendly vineyard even have a name!
Eve’s Wine Tip: After opening any bottle of wine (red, white, Champagne) be sure to recork it and store in the refrigerator to slow down the aging process.
dia zdrowia!
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San Diego Home Builder Files for Bankruptcy
December 29th, 2008 Categories: Carlsbad Real Estate Encinitas San Diego Real Estate
As a sad ending to this dismal year in San Diego real estate, Barratt America, a prestigious home builder headquartered in Carlsbad, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Christmas Eve. One of San Diego’s larger local builders, Barratt America has reduced its staff from about 140 employees to around 15, but hopes to resume new home construction again in 2010.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Bank of America has foreclosed on seven of Barratt’s subdivisions and condo developments and will be taking back four other projects in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Bank of America claims Barratt owes them around $79 million.
Excluded from this high-profile San Diego bankruptcy will be Santee’s proposed 1400-home Fanita Ranch development, which is part of a separate limited partnership. It is not out of the woods, though, because Guaranty Banks has issued a Notice of Default, claiming that Barratt owes them nearly $27 million
Barratt projects lost to Bank of America include Magnolia Estates in Carlsbad, Nantucket in Encinitas, Aragon in La Mesa and award-winning City Square in Escondido.
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San Diego Real Estate News Upbeat: Sorta
December 11th, 2008 Categories: Market Trends Real Estate News San Diego Market Trends San Diego Real Estate
San Diego real estate news isn’t all that bad.
Sales of single family resale homes rose for the fifth month in a row, gaining around 40 percent in November, 2008 compared to the same month last year. And compared to 2007, San Diego area home sales for 2008 are up 8.2 percent.
But metro San Diego median home prices tell another story.
While sales may be rising, prices are dropping and that’s due to the plethora of short sales, foreclosures and desperation deals. Overall, median home prices in San Diego were off 6.8 percent in October–and off a full 35.6 percent year-over-year . Average prices are equally interesting: Off 13.4 percent month-over-month, and off 40.7 percent compared to November, 2007– according to Rick Campbell and rereport.com
A fair and reasonable conclusion?
Sales are rising because real estate prices are dropping. This in turn attracts first time home buyers, investors and those buyers who have been waiting in the wings for opportunities like these.
Please understand these are global numbers for all of San Diego and not taken into account are the myriad micro markets–where local statistics may vary greatly from those presented here.
If you are interested in detailed statistics for a particular zip code in San Diego County, just email roberta (at) SanDiegoPreviews.com or call 760-402-9101 and we’ll send them to you.
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Agents We Can Do Without
December 3rd, 2008 Categories: New Homes Oceanside
At this moment, I am growling under my breath at the sleaziness of two San Diego real estate agents who would throw their clients under the bus in exchange for a few thousand dollars.
In the last couple of weeks, we have had two agents come into the Oceanside Terraces–a luxury downtown Oceanside condo development we have listed. One agent with a major franchise came in by himself and asked numerous questions about the building. Finally, with no squirming and a smarmy smile, he proposed that we up his sales commission to four percent if he could convince his client(s) to pay a premium price for one of our condo listings.
Partner Eve Sieminski and I were stunned by his proposition–and I couldn’t help but snarkily suggest that we might consider doing so if he fully disclosed to his client, in writing, what he was doing.
Smarmy real estate agent has not returned.
A few days ago, another agent from a small and independent real estate office brought a very interested client through the property and returned later to request, repeatedly, a $10,000 bonus if his client bought one of our listings. Eve repeatedly told him there was no bonus for anyone–and agent repeatedly said another local builder was offering a $10,000 bonus–and that if we couldn’t offer the same he would steer his client in that direction.
Grrrrr!
I am not a big fan of real estate bonuses–unless they are being offered to the buyer. In fact, we share bonus information with our clients and use it as a negotiating tool if making an offer. As far as we are concerned, bonuses belong to our clients. Furthermore, most properties offering bonuses are overpriced–and would be better served by simply reducing the list price.
For more upbeat reading about Oceanside:
Oceanside Urban Luxury: Oceanside Terraces
San Diego Baby Boomers: The Wish List
Fun at Oceanside and San Diego Farmer’s Markets
Oceanside and San Diego a Bargain for Foreign Investors
Things to Do with Kids in Oceanside and San Diego
Oceanside and San Diego Real Estate Irresistible to Foreigners and Expats
Things to Do in Downtown Oceanside
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San Diego Foreclosures Take a Holiday
November 20th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News San Diego Relocation
by Roberta Murphy
Many owners of distressed San Diego real estate will be able to live in their homes during the holidays without fear of the Sheriff moving their belongings to the street.
Today, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they are putting a temporary halt on foreclosure sales and evictions from November 26, 2008 to January 9, 2008 for occupied single family homes. Owners cannot be in bankruptcy and payments must be three months in arrears and there must also be at least two loans on the property.
In all, says Freddie Mac CEO Favid Moffett, this relief program will aid about 60 percent of the Freddie Mac borrowers.
And according to Fannie Mae’s press release
“The program creates a fast-track method for getting troubled borrowers into an affordable monthly payment through a mix of reducing the mortgage interest rate, extending the life of the loan or even deferring payments on part of the principal. Servicers have flexibility in the approach, but the objective is to create a more affordable payment for borrowers at risk of foreclosure.”
Hopefully, stock and selective real estate markets will be able to get on their feet again– and get moving in the right direction.
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