| Helping People Live the Paso Style; Real Estate News, Events, Wine, Food, Living | March 2010 |
WINE NOTES(Local Wine and Real Estate News) |
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Wine Happenings: The big wine Event coming up is Paso's celebration of the Zinfandel Grape. Zinfandel has a long history in the Paso Area with York Mountain producing Zinfandel wine which was sold from here to San Francisco in 1885. Zinfandel as a wine grape has had a checkered past. Popular in early California of which there are many old vines still producing. Most people consider Zinfandel to have been maligned in the 80's and 90's as White Zinfandel became the popular wine of choice. One reason there are so much old vine Zin is that during Prohibition Zin was a popular wine grape to ship East for home wine makers. California once considered making Zinfandel the official State grape. Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival, March 19 -21. Real Estate Updates: Appraisals Appraisals used to be such a simple thing. Transparent to most home purchasers or refinancers, but things are different now. So if you haven't purchased a home recently or refinanced recently you are probably not aware. The process should still be transparent to you, but not without it's impacts. Appraisals will cost you more, be less reliable, and take longer to complete. HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct) applies to all mortgages which may be underwritten by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (Majority of mortgages). The HVCC establishes standards for solicitation, selection, compensation, conflicts of interest and appraiser independence. Things that all sound good on the surface, but definitely adding cost, taking longer, and are less reliable. Although with good intentions here's what's happening. Communication between the Lender and Appraiser is strictly controlled. No interaction can take place directly between the person making the loan and the actual appraiser doing the job. Mortgage Brokers are limited even more not being able to order the appraisal themselves. The effect is most appraisials are now performed by Appraiser Management Companies which act as middle men (Note Higher Prices) to manage appraisers to perform the actual appraisal task (Note cheapest Price to them). Appraisal Management companies cover very large areas, it's very likely your property could be appraised by someone who had previously never been outside of LA (Less Reliable). Mortgage reform was definitely needed, but everyone is hoping HVCC is eliminated soon. Please take a look a this short video clip to further see the impacts. http://www.hvccpetition.com/ |
Quick Real Estate Stats:(California) |
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WINE and LOCAL TRIVIA |
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(Please visit http://www.pasostyleliving.com for the answer) |
March
is time to celebrate Zinfandel with the Paso Robles
Zinfandel Festival March 19-21. Zinfandel has a long
history in the Paso Robles area with the first commercial
winery producing Zinfandel wine in 1885 (York Mountain).
White Zinfandel a few years ago was so popular that it was
considered by many the 3rd most popular wine varietal.
What California winery created and sold the first White
Zinfandel. I'm sure there will not be any at the Zin
Festival
PASO STYLE LIVING REAL ESTATE (Local Real Estate Market Conditions) |
Local
sales activity has slowed recently. Below you can see in the numbers
that there were only 49 properties in the Paso Wine Country that closed in
February. Although February is generally slower than other months, 49
is about half what one would expect. I'm still optimistic that we'll see some improvement by mid summer.
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Real Estate Up, Down, and Around: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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REAL ESTATE HOT LIST (Special Properties for Sale in the Paso Wine Country) |
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Lowest price Single Family Residential Property
● Most Expensive Single Family Residential Property The above properties are listed in the Central Coast MLS and may or may not be listed by Home and Vineyard Real Estate Brokerage. The presentation of this information is not meant to imply any advertisement of these properties. |
FOOD CORNER (Personal Recipes and Favorite Restaurants of the Paso Wine Country) |
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Zinfandel Glazed Beef Short Ribs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zinfandel is a great wine for cooking especially where
you want a nice sweet flavor. My compliments to
the Food Network for the basic recipe with my personal
modifcations.
Season ribs with a nice dry rub. Heat a large heavy roasting pan over high heat and brown the ribs on all sides. Remove and set aside. Add Onions, Celery, Peppers, and Garlic to roasting pan and cook until well browned. Deglaze the pan with the Zinfandel, add the Chicken Stock and bring to a boil. Return the ribs, cover in foil and braise in a pre-heated oven for 2 1/2 hours. Remove Ribs from sauce, skim off fat, reduce for a few minutes and pour over the Ribs to serve. Enjoy! |
| Ron Johnson Broker, RealtorŪ (805) 423-1902 www.PasoStyleLiving.com |
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 945 12th Street, Suite F PO Box 1981 Paso Robles, CA 93447 www.PasoStyleLiving.com |