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A luxurious Napa Valley hotel is swapping one winemaking proprietor for another. Wine Spectator has learned that PA Capital Management, a family firm that owns Sullivan Rutherford Estate and Loco Tequila, has bought Poetry Inn in the Stags Leap District from the Lede family of Cliff Lede Vineyards. The purchase price was not disclosed.

US group Vintage Wine Estates has reportedly been given court approval to sell five wine brands to Foley Family Wines. After filing for bankruptcy last month, Vintage Wine Estates looks set to offload its wine brands Bar Dog, Cherry Pie, Swanson, Conentino and SCV for a total of $15m, according to Bloomberg.

In the U.S., California was one of the earliest pioneers and supporters of solar energy. In 1976, the state passed a law that favored investments in the solar energy sector. A few years later, an even more encouraging law hit the books and sought to stop various community associations from banning solar panel systems in their neighborhoods.

House hunters should consider jumping into the market now, with last week’s soft jobs report sending mortgage rates to their lowest level since April 2023. Daily average mortgage rates have dropped to their lowest level since April 2023, welcome news for homebuyers who have been waiting for affordability to improve.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters a rate cut may be coming in September, which is in line with market expectations. The unsurprising news isn’t likely to impact mortgage rates in the short term, but the start of the rate-cutting cycle should help push them down gradually throughout the year.

The twin-peaked lumber bubble of 2021 and 2022 that once drove home building costs through the roof and exacerbated inflation is now nothing more than a memory. Spot lumber prices have plummeted 75% from their May 2021 record high of $1,514 per thousand board feet to just $366 this week, roughly matching pre-pandemic levels, according to Random Lengths’ Framing Lumber Composite Price Index.