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Which Cities Lead Solano & Contra Costa In Distress-Sale Home Listings?

February 24th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Contra Costa, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

Pittsburg, Antioch, Vallejo, Suisun City and Oakley are once again the distressed property “leaders” in our Solano/Central-East Contra Costa market area, with more than 8 out of every 10 homes for sale in each of those communities either bank-owned (REO) or a short sale.distressed-property-recap-shadow-2-23-09

Those same five cities were at the top of the list back in early January, when I last prepared this report.

Pittsburg again leads the way, with a staggering 93% of its 409 listings either bank-owned (191) or short sales (also 191). A mere 27 listings are being sold by traditional sellers with enough equity to avoid selling at a loss.

Neighboring Antioch has an identical 93% distressed sales, with 45% of its 635 homes selling as an “REO” (foreclosure) and 48% selling by way of a short sale. Just 44 Antioch homes are fair-market listings.

Vallejo rounds out the top three, with 89% distressed sales. Even though Vallejo has seen a large increase in its sales activity in recent weeks, there are still 442 REOs and another 272 short sales on the market. That’s out of 798 total listings.

With REOs alone making up 55% of its listing inventory, Vallejo also has the dubious distinction of being the only city on the list with more than half its listings as foreclosed properties.

At the other end of the spectrum, Alamo (15%), Moraga (15%), Orinda (16%), Lafayette (16%) and Danville (20%) have the lowest percentage of distressed sale listings,  followed, in order, by:

  • Walnut Creek (29%)
  • Clayton (34%)
  • Pleasant Hill (44%)
  • Martinez (50%)
  • Benicia (51%)
  • Vacaville (65%)
  • Fairfield-Green Valley (73%)
  • Concord (75%)
  • Brentwood (76%).

To see the full report, CLICK HERE. It details the current number of foreclosures, short sales and fair-market listings (totals and percentages) for each of the 19 communities in our market area.

Overall, very little has changed since I compiled the Jan. 7 report, as those cities with the most distressed sales back then still have similar numbers. Likewise, those communities with the fewest REOs and short sales still have very few.

Suisun City, Fairfield, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette and Moraga) all saw their percentage of distress-sale listings drop by between 5-8 percent. However, in some communities the current percentages are a tad higher than they were back in January.

On a positive note, even though their percentage of distress sale listings remains about the same as it was in January, the region’s Top Five cities all saw their total housing inventory drop between Jan. 7 and Feb. 23.

Housing Inventory Declines In The Top 5 Distress-Sale Cities (since Jan. 7)

  • Suisun City — 26.8% fewer active listings
  • Pittsburg — 15.1% fewer active listings
  • Antioch – 13.5% fewer active listings
  • Vallejo — 9.6% fewer active listings
  • Oakley — 6.6% fewer active listings

The most surprising figures are for those communities with the highest prices (Lamorinda, Walnut Creek, Danville, Alamo). We’ve been hearing that the state’s highest priced cities are in for a large price correction, which should mean a rise in short sales and foreclosures in those cities.

Last week, I attended a luncheon where the chief economist for the California Assn. of Realtors gave the keynote address and she boldly predicted that those high-priced areas would see an average price drop of one to two percent a month throughout 2009.

But so, far the number of distress sale listings in those communities remains at or below what it was back in early January.

If you have any questions about these numbers or want to find out how they look in your specific neighborhood, please comment below or Contact Us.

I’ve been preparing this report about every six weeks. So look for the next report in early April. It will be interesting to see how much changes between now and then, particularly since changes called for under President Obama’s Housing Stability Plan and the Economic Stimulus Bill will by then have been in full swing for a good month.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Benicia, Buying, Contra Costa, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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