The Napa Valley Real Estate Market is hot, while the National Media continues to dog the real estate market. Most real estate “experts” consider a good real estate market to be 6-7 months worth of inventory. We have roughly 3 months of inventory. (less in some areas of Napa, for instance American Canyon has about 1 month worth of inventory) We base Months of Inventory on how long it would take to sell all the properties that are currently listed for sale, if no additional properties came on the market. In our first time home buyer and investor segment of our real estate market, (500k and under) we are seeing multiple offers and properties selling for more than the asking price. Between 20-25% of all our transactions are cash transactions. We have also seen our distressed property sales go down from a year ago. We are down to about 48% of all sales are or were distressed properties, while a year ago, it was roughly 58%. With little inventory, high demand, and interest rates still at historically low rates, is now the time to buy real estate? (either for personal or investment)

Here is an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that talks a little more about the real estate market across the nation.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/15/national/w070122D29.DTL&tsp=1