2008-2009 Holiday Newsletter

A WORLD APART

We spent Thanksgiving with friends in their beautiful home just south of the Navarro River. They have a magnificent view of the ocean, the river and the beach. Creamy sprays of ocean foam crashed the rocky coast and pounded the shore. The play of light on the ocean dazzled and entertained us all through dinner. By sunset the entire world outside the wall of windows had turned a soft purple. The final rays from the sun filtered through the low-slung clouds in great shafts and stuck bright halos onto the edge of the horizon. For those few moments, time was suspended and the world was free of sub-prime loans and terrorists and greedy moguls. Deep breath.

Most years I write a year-end report for my website. This year is different. How to say what is in my heart? Let me start this way, there's an old vaudeville saying: "It's easy to throw your hat out on stage, it's crawling out there to get if off that's hard."

After 19 years of selling property and living happily in the Anderson Valley and the Mendocino Coast, I find myself in the position of trying to retrieve that hat gracefully. Ernie and I bought our land in 1981. This summer, we sold our Philo home which he built lovingly with his own hands. It closed in July. For the past five months, we have been living in my listing in Little River: The Enchanted Cottage. It has been great fun as it is a totally different ambiance from our Valley home, but also very private and one-of-a-kind. We will spend Christmas in our new home, an authentic mud-adobe, in Tucson, AZ. The time has come for me to give up the day-to-day workings of a Realtor and devote time to my first love: my husband; and my passion: writing.

As of January 1, 2009 I will not be physically selling property on the North Coast; however, if you become interested in anything you see on my site or through multiple listings, please don't hesitate to contact me. I am happily with LIGHTHOUSE REALTY of Mendocino, located across from the fabulous Moosse Café in Mendocino Village (Kasten and Albion Streets). Carol Greenberg and Michelle Deering who are partners in LIGHTHOUSE will be handling all the referrals I can send them. I will do the virtual work of connecting you with these great hard-working and honorable agents. My email remains the same: gio@giorealtor.com, or gio@mcn.org and my cell phone is the same: 707-489-7028.

Having been licensed in California for 30 years, I can tell you I've seen my share of down markets. This market is different in that it has a global component missing from the 2+ other down turns I've weathered: one in the L.A. market and another here in Mendocino. But then, the others occurred before NAFTA — when the global market was merely a futuristic concept. In each crash the prices of property adjusted downward. This is no different. People were warned before those downturns and the current crisis not to think of their home as a savings account. No one ever listens.

No place is totally immune from the effects of any market correction, especially one of such magnitude. However, the natural beauty of the Mendocino Coast and the Anderson Valley plus the addition of the extraordinary Pinot Noir made here is a promise that this is an area and a region that will suffer fewer of the effects. Over-priced properties do not sell in a good market and will certainly be neglected in a bad market.

The media doesn't seem to get anything right anymore. They are the masters of the clarion call for panic and quick to extract the last juices out of an already disturbing situation. If you are not involved with a sub-prime loan then with some belt-tightening and judicious spending you should emerge on the other side of this crisis intact. It will turn around.

There will still be a Christmas. If you want to feel a spark of hope and forget the world for a while, come for a visit to the North Coast and get excited all over again. The white twinkle lights will still be-deck the Victorian buildings in the Village. The sun will set over the Bay. The bare vineyards will give you hope of spring and new life. The choirs will still gather to celebrate with a sing-a-long Messiah and there still will be driftwood bonfires on the beach. Enjoying these things is free.

The shops in the Anderson Valley, Elk, Fort Bragg and Mendocino Village are stocked with many imaginative and inexpensive items for loading those Christmas stockings. With gas prices down, and the Inns, motels and cottages that dot the coastline and Valley offering great bargains, all is in readiness for your World Away sojourn.

I would enjoy hearing from any of you who regularly visit or are new to this site. It has been an honor and a pleasure to introduce so many to the wonders of this extraordinary place.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy New Year!
Gio

Holidays 2008-2009

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