Craig and I were up in Napa this morning to hold our new listing at 22 Glory Court open for the North Bay Association of Realtors brokers tour. The NorBay Realtors meeting was well attended. We had a couple dozen agents come by 22 Glory Court and had some good interaction with Napa Realtors and affiliates.

John Tuteur, Napa County Tax Assessor, talked to the local real estate agents and affiliates about the current Napa real estate market and some of the guidelines around transfer of the base tax value when you sell a proeprty and buy another.

John mentioned that in 1998 there were 101 foreclosures for the year in Napa county. In 1999, the number of foreclosures for the year was 46. In 2008, there have been 40+ foreclosures per month in Napa county! John, like many other professionals associated with the real estate industry, was quick to note that this is unchartered territory for us all as the underlying dynamics are not historic.

John Tuteur also mentioned that if you are going to sell and move up, and you want to leverage the transfer of the base year value tax – sell first. When you sell first, you can realize a 5% adjustment for inflation. If you wait a year and a day, you can realize a 12% adjustment for inflation. Check with John’s office for the specifics.

John mentioned that every evening he reads the local paper and when he sees anything that might effect a reduction of a local taxpayer’s tax base, he clips the article and gives it to his staff to follow up on. John Tuteur impressed me as the type of civil servant we could use more of.

We asked many of the Napa Realtors their opinion of the Napa real estate market and most replied it is still faily sluggish. Hopefully, the warmer weather will bring some liveliness back to the market.