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April 2010 Benicia & Vallejo Home Sales

May 18th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Vallejo

Ben-Vjo Home Sale Reports - AprilCurious what that Benicia home down the street sold for last month? Wonder how much your Vallejo neighbor sold his home sold for? Or how long it took a certain Vallejo or Benicia home to sell?

Just download our April Benicia and Vallejo Home Sale Reports for those answers and more. Some highlights from April’s Benicia & Vallejo Home Sale Reports appears below. Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

April Solano Home Sales Report: Prices Holding Steady And Up County-Wide Over Last Year

May 11th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

April’s home sales numbers are in for Solano County and on a county-wide basis, the median price last month was $200,000 — exactly the same as it was in March.

Vacaville, Vallejo and Suisun all reported median prices that were almost the same as the previous month, while Benicia’s median was way up and Fairfield’s was noticeably down.

April Median Sales PriceThe huge jump in Benicia’s median price is probably Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Why There May Be Almost Twice As Much State Tax Credit Money As Everyone Thought

May 10th, 2010 categories: Buying

$100 MillionAs  you’ll recall, back on Apr. 15,  I wrote that our state association, the California Assn. of Realtors, projected that the state’s new first-time and new-home buyer tax credits might all be gone within a matter of days, once May 1 arrived and eligible buyers started sending in their tax credit paperwork.

Well, it’s still too early to know for sure, but based on ‘early returns,’ CAR’s doom-and-gloom prediction may turn out to be rather exaggerated.

$100 Million Or $175 Million?

All along the state has been saying that only $100 million was allocated to fund the tax credit. But is that really true? Well kinda-sorta. Read the rest of this story

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Benicia Going Green…But Not For Much Longer

May 8th, 2010 categories: Buying, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff

Benicia is very green these days, but that’s all about to change…and probably well before the end of May.

No, I’m not talking about the city’s environmental efforts. I’m talking about Benicia’s gorgeous green hills.Hastings Read the rest of this story

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Watch My Benicia Vegetable Garden Grow: Week 2 Update

May 6th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff

It’s been a little over two weeks since I planted my Benicia vegetable garden. In the past week, some of the tomato plants have grown another 8-10 inches. The little yellow flowers are already starting to appear on some of the plants.

IMG_1702The other veggies — green peppers, pickling cucumbers,  green beans, beets, and green onions — also are continuing to grow quite nicely. Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Benicia Open Studios This Weekend

April 30th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Market Update

Open StudiosA big part of Benicia’s charm has always been its thriving art community. And once a year, on the first weekend in May, many of these local artists open their studios to the general public.

Open Studios takes place this Saturday and Sunday, May 1 & 2 throughout Benicia. The event is sponsored by Arts Benicia, a non-profit organization that helps promote and further the arts in town.

This year, over 60 Benicia artists plan to participate and open their studios to the public. Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Spring FINALLY Arrived In Benicia Today

April 29th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff

IMG_1614In my book, Spring doesn’t really officially begin in Benicia until the Farmer’s Market opens. So that means today was the first day of Spring, at least here in Benicia that is.

And it wouldn’t be opening day of the Benicia’s Farmer’s Market without a few April showers.

So right on cue, about 10 minutes before the market was scheduled to open for the season, the skies suddenly darkened and rain started to fall.

Fortunately, though, it was just a brief shower and by the time I got down there around 4:30, there were just scattered clouds.

For me, opening day at the Farmer’s Market is always a special day. Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano Home Buyers Get 2-Month Extension On 3.5% Fannie Mae Closing Cost Credit

April 28th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville

Fannie Mae 3.5 Credit Non-Investors Who Buy A Fannie Mae Repo Can Still Get The Credit If They Close By June 30


In what amounts to an unexpected gift to buyers of Fannie Mae bank-owned homes in Solano County, the secondary mortgage market giant just announced that its 3.5% closing cost credit incentive program, which was scheduled to end Apr. 30, has been extended to June 30.

So if you buy one of the 96 Fannie Mae-owned homes in Solano County that are either presently for sale or about to come on the market and can close escrow in the next two months, you could be eligible for up to 3.5% in credits at close of escrow.

Of the 96 homes for sale in Solano, 89 are Read the rest of this story

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Solano Pending Home Sales Up, Inventory Down As Tax Credit Draws To A Close

April 28th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville

Whether it’s due to the impending federal tax credit deadline or just the normal spring real estate market surge, home sale activity has definitely picked up in recent weeks in Solano County, which in turn weekly-solano-home-reporthas caused the supply of homes for sale to drop.

This past week marks the first time all year that all five cities in our Solano County market area have seen their inventory of homes decline in the same week.

Vallejo (-20) and Fairfield (-24) both experienced double-digit drops in their housing supply, while the other three cities saw a nominal decrease (Benicia & Fairfield -4 and Suisun -2).

Yet, even that is a significant change from Read the rest of this story

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Watch My Benicia Vegetable Garden Grow: Week 1 Update

April 25th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff

IMG_1503Last week I wrote a post about my newly planted home garden here in Benicia. I’ll be posting weekly updates for those who like to live vicariously and want to watch my garden grow.

For the record, I’ve planted 10 varieties of tomatoes, three kind of bell peppers (2 plants each), green onions, pickling cucumbers, green beans, chioggia beets, and strawberries. And the following herbs: tarragon, sage, oregano, thyme, cilantro, dill, mint, basil and Italian parsley.

Some of the tomato plants have already grown about 4-6 inches, so I figured I’d better get the tomato cages in place before they get too big.  All the plants seem to have made it through transplanting — no casualties so far!

Here are some more photos at the end of Week One. Read the rest of this story

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »