2017 NEWS IN REVIEW
In looking back at 2017, I feel like many of you I’m sure, immeasurable sadness and empathy for so many people and for the country. The incessant flow of natural disasters throughout the country felt like we were taken back to biblical times. It was a devastating year for California which has continued into 2018 in Southern California. Some of the State’s most beautiful, expensive and coveted areas have been ravaged beyond comprehension.
While there is not a lot to celebrate as so many people suffer unimaginable hardship, I can report that it was yet another strong year for luxury sales in wine country real estate. The number of Three Million Dollar plus residential sales went up from 38 to 53 in Napa County, a 39.5% increase over 2016. Sonoma County luxury sales went down from 40 to 34 a 15% decrease.
I usually give you the statistics for each town, but after studying the data I believe it’s misleading for two reasons. Firstly, there is an ever increasing number of ‘confidential off market’ sales, and secondly, towns like Rutherford, Oakville and Angwin have so few, and sometimes no sales over one million dollars, so the percentages are skewed given that all the data is pulled from the multiple listing service. Suffice to say that the luxury market was on somewhat of a tear in 2017. For example, the highest priced residential sale with no more than 4 acres of vineyard in the history of Napa Valley was Fifteen Million dollars. That sale was in 2014. In 2017 we had another Fifteen Million dollar sale and a Seventeen Million dollar ‘off market’ sale in North Napa. Residential sales over Eleven Million dollars have always been few and far between, so 2017 was a big year for luxury sales with 3 sales over Eleven Million dollars. Calistoga also broke its record of the highest residential sale of $4,425,000 with Four Season’s Hotel – Calistoga Resort selling fourteen of its twenty luxurious condos for between $4,250,000 and $5,770,000. And it seems that 2018 is already off to a good start in the luxury market with two high end sales this January – one over Ten Million dollars and the other over Twelve Million dollars.
Winery and vineyard sales slowed a little in 2017. There were a jaw dropping number of applications for hotel developments and hotel expansion in the first half of 2017. For a recap of the prolific list you can click here. The highly anticipated Archer Hotel in downtown Napa opened. You will note in an article below that Napa Valley hotel revenue grew by 7.8% in 2017 despite the hotel closures due to the fires. We lost seven hundred and thirty million dollars in assessed real estate values due to the October wildfires which represents a three million dollar hit to the general fund. The Grape Report comes out in February each year to reflect the numbers for the previous year so the Napa Valley averages for 2017 are yet to be announced. I will include those numbers in my Napa Valley Insider Newsfeed February Newsletter.
To read the rest of our news and updates you can find the full January 2018 Newsletter here.
