Helping People Live the Paso Style,  Events, Wine, Food, Living                               April 2008

Wine Notes: (Local RE and Wine News)
 Hospice Du Rhone:
Hospice Du Rhone is considered the largest Rhone wine event in the world. This 16th annual Paso Robles event draws winemakers and Rhone wine lovers from around the world. There is no other place where one can taste so many different Rhone wines at one location. Probably the most recognized Rhone varienital is Syrah, but there are 22 different varieties of Rhone Grapes. A few being Mourvedre, Grenache, Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne.
   Paso Robles is quickly becoming a recognized leader in Rhone wines.  Tablas Creek is an excellent example.  The Perrin family, proprietors of Château de Beaucastel of the Rhone Châteauneuf-du-Pape region partnered with Robert Haas of Vineyard Brands►
        

 to find a location in the US that mirrored the climate and soils of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. After searching the entire west coast wine regions they chose Paso Robles Westside as the location for Tablas Creek.       For more information on Hospice Du Rhone visit their website: www.hospicedurhone.org

Quick Real Estate Facts: (Calif)
Median home price - 
    $409,240
Highest median home price
    Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,295,000
Lowest median home price 
     High Desert $220,380
Mortgage rates - week ending 03/27:
  -30-yr. fixed: 5.85%; Fees/points: 0.4%
  -15-yr. fixed: 5.34%; Fees/points: 0.4%
  -1-yr.   adj:   5.67%; Fees/points: 0.6%
    It's now official!  I am now Home & Vineyard Real Estate Brokerage.  I've had two passions for many years, Real Estate and Wine. It is obviously from this newsletter that I enjoy both.  It's absolutely great to be able to have my own Real Estate Company in one of the great wine regions. 
    Any time you would like to discuss Real Estate or Wine,  give me a call!
 
Food Corner:  (Personal recipes and Favorite Restaurants of the Paso Wine Country)   
Guest House Grill:  There's a relatively new restaurant in Atascadero which I think deserves mentioning.  The Guest House Grill located in the Spencer's Market Center on El Camino is a breath of fresh air for eating in Atascadero.  Two recent Cal Poly graduates who worked their way though high school and college as cooks at AJ Spurs have partnered to open what has potential to be a great restaurant.  The food is good and they had paid attention to detail in decorating, style, and service which can make it successful.
 

Wine & Local Trivia:
 Paso Robles is quickly becoming well known as an excellent Rhone wine producing area.  Syrah is probably the most common Rhone wine. In the Northern Rhone Valley of France Syrah is the predominate red wine grape and Viognier is the predominate white wine grape. What is the most common blending grape for Syrah in the Northern Rhone Valley.
  a) Grenache
  b) Mourvedre
  c) Viognier
  d) None of the Above

(Please visit http://www.pasostyleliving.com for the answer)

Paso Style Living Real Estate: (Real Estate market conditions in Paso Wine Country)
    Local market conditions continue to reflect what's happening on a national level. National press reports indicated an up tick in sales based upon lower prices. The local stats below reflect that on a local level. All areas except Templeton experienced increased sales activity last month. The Templeton market sample size is too small to be statistically accurate anyway.
    Here's my quick synopsis of where things are at. We had a real estate expansion (boom) that was not sustainable. This led to an oversupply of homes and softening prices. The problem we're facing in the country and to some extent the world is that the US financial markets were based upon an assumption that the real estate boom would continue forever.  As I discussed last month, banks are not failing because of bad loans, (sub-prime crisis) banks are having difficulty because of liquidity problems. The world financial markets invested heavily in Mortgage Backed Securities which had no market history. It's not that these securities are worthless, it's just that no one can place a value on them currently and thus no one wants to buy them.
    There are some excellent deals to be had in local real estate. The cost of construction has not reduced substantially with the downturn in home prices. There are homes available which are selling for less than replacement cost. When the financial markets stabilize the available home inventory will quickly be absorbed and prices will have to go up sharply because of the cost of new construction.
 

Area  (2/1/08-2/29/08)

Avg Price

Homes Available

Sold/Pending

Atascadero

$468,379

216

36

Paso Robles

$420,450

361

68

Templeton

$709,500

87

6

All Paso Wine Country

$453,584

792

117

Paso Wine Country contains the following real estate areas (Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, San Miguel, Creston, Shandon, Santa Margarita, Bradley, and Chalome) (Single Family Homes, SFRSB)
Ron Johnson
 Broker, Realtor®
 (805) 423-1902
 www.pasostyleliving.com
945 12th Street, Suite F
PO Box 1981
Paso Robles, CA 93447
www.homeandvineyard.com