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A Mad-Dash Land-Rush For Benicia Real Estate Earlier Today
July 3rd, 2009 categories: Benicia, Local Stuff
Talk about land rushes. It happened earlier today, right here in little old Benicia. People were out at the crack of down trying to stake their claim on their precious piece of real estate.
Okay, maybe I’m embellishing things a little bit. You see, the land rush I’m talking about took place in anticipation of tonight’s 3rd of July Torchlight Parade.
And the real estate people were “claiming” consisted either of a piece of lawn at the City Park adjacent to the judge’s stand or a small piece of sidewalk along First Street — both prime viewing areas for the always popular parade. Read the rest of this story
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Why Benicians Don’t Leave Town For The 4th
July 1st, 2009 categories: Benicia, Local Stuff
When our kids were growing up, they never wanted to go away over the 4th of July. No they weren’t anti-social. And yes they liked to have fun just as much as the next kid.
No, the reason they wanted to stay home is because no one really does the 4th of July like Benicia.
It’s part Mayberry RFD, part Norman Rockwell Americana and even a little part Disneyland.
In fact, speaking of Disney, about a dozen years ago or so, the Disney Channel actually came to Benicia to film our 3rd of July Torchlight Parade for a network promo showing that Small Town America was alive and well. Read the rest of this story
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Weekly Real Estate Report For June 29: Six Months Under Our Belts…And What A Change
June 30th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
We’re right at the half-way point for 2009 and if you look at the inventory of homes and weekly pending sales for Solano County, it’s hard to believe how much has changed since the first of the year.
If you follow this blog on a regular basis, you’ve watched the inventory plummet and home sales increase — a trend that really started to gain momentum throughout most of the county in late January/early February.
Back in mid-January, Vallejo, Fairfield and Suisun City had 899, 719 and 240 homes on the market respectively. Today, they all have about a third of those numbers: Vallejo-282; Fairfield-245; Suisun-55. Read the rest of this story
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Coldwell Banker’s Kazoo Band Getting Ready For Benicia’s July 3rd Torchlight Parade
June 26th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Local Stuff
If you live in Benicia or have visited here over the 4th of July holiday, you know that it’s one of the two times a year when literally the whole town turns out for a festive community event (the other is the holiday walk on First St. in December).
This year promises to be no exception, starting on July 3rd, when First Street is closed to traffic for the annual Torchlight Parade.
The parade begins at 6:30 pm, but people start lining First Street with folding chairs early in the morning in preparation for the parade that evening. The same thing happens on the grassy slope of the City Park that faces First Street, where people show up early in the morning to lay out their blankets on a precious piece of sod and stake their claim for one of the town’s prime viewing spots adjacent to the judges’ stand.
The parade is always an entertaining mix of music, dancing and marching. You’re usually also sure to see horses, fire trucks, dogs and maybe even a spitting camel along the colorful parade route. Read the rest of this story
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Weekly Real Estate Report For June 22: Solano County’s Home Supply Continues To Tumble
June 23rd, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
Lower Inventory, Strong Sales Activity County-Wide Once Again
The recent rise in interest rates hasn’t dampened the mood of prospective home buyers, as this week’s Solano County Real Estate report illustrates.
Vallejo once again led the way, as it has for much of 2009. This past week saw Vallejo’s inventory drop below the 300 mark for the first time all year. Read the rest of this story
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Solano County Weekly Real Estate Report — Listings & Pending Sales As Of June 15, 2009
June 16th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
Just got back from seeing my youngest daughter graduate with honors from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, so this week’s housing numbers for Solano County are a day later than normal.
A few things of note during the past week:
1. Fairfield and Vallejo both had double-digit declines in their housing supplies last week, one week after seeing a brief interruption of that trend for the first time since February.
2. For the year, the housing inventories in Vallejo and Fairfield are both almost two-thirds less than what they were in early January. Read the rest of this story
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Solano County Weekly Real Estate Report — Listings & Pending Sales As Of June 8, 2009
June 8th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
For the first time in almost four months, the inventory of active listings rose in several Solano County cities — places where up until 
now the housing supply had been on a free-fall since January.
After watching its supply diminish by 21% in each of the past two months, Vallejo, where the inventory hadn’t risen since the first week in February, had a net gain of three listings last week.
Suisun City, which has seen its inventory plummet by 70% since early January, also saw an increase last week, with nine more homes on the market today than a week ago.
Benicia’s inventory, which had fallen for the previous five weeks, after being up and down throughout most of the past four months, was also up. Read the rest of this story
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Vallejo CA Home Sales Report For May ‘09 — Details on All 231 Homes That Sold
June 7th, 2009 categories: Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Local Stuff, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
May was a bellwether month for Vallejo, with the median price up 20% — yes you read that right — 20% over what it was in April, 
adding further proof that the market may finally be poised to return to greener pastures.
For the record, the median price a month ago was $117,000. In May it was $140,000. That’s a $23,000 increase — or 19.7% above April’s median (rounded-off: 20%).
One month isn’t a particularly large sample size, so it’s still premature to put too much significance on it, especially since Read the rest of this story
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Benicia CA Home Sales Report For May ‘09 — Details On All 22 Homes That Sold
June 6th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Solano
If you read May’s Solano County Monthly Real Estate Report, you know that Benicia’s sales numbers were up slightly over April’s (22 in May, 18 in April).
You also know that the median sales price for May in Benicia was down 7.7% — from $360,000 in April to $332,450 last month, even though Solano’s county-wide median sales price was up $15,000 in May (an 8.6% jump).
That increase was due largely to Vallejo’s incredible 20% increase in its median between April and May. But then, Vallejo’s median price is 45% lower than it was a year ago, whereas Benicia’s prices only fell 26% between May ‘08 and May ‘09.
This month’s Benicia Home Sales Report includes details on all 22 homes that sold last month. A few highlights from that report: Read the rest of this story
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May ‘09 Solano Real Estate Report: Vallejo Leads The Way…Prices Up 20% In 1 Month
June 6th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
If May’s real estate sales results for Vallejo are any indication of what we can expect in the coming months for the rest of Solano County, the tide may have finally started to turn.
I just downloaded May’s home sales data, and as expected, it followed the same path as January, February, March and April, with strong sales throughout most of the county, thanks to home prices that are dramatically lower than they were just a year ago.
And nowhere are they any lower than in Vallejo, which has become a hotbed of activity for first-time buyers and investors, with multiple- and over-asking-price offers on almost everything under $300,000. Read the rest of this story
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