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Archive for May, 2009

It’s Official: Now You Can Use The $8,000 1st-Time Buyer Credit Before You Close Escrow

May 31st, 2009 categories: Buying, Loans / Financing

fha-tax-form3If you’re a first-time home buyer in Benicia, Vallejo or anywhere else in Solano County (or the rest of the U.S. for that matter) and you’re planning on using an FHA loan to purchase your first home, you should be thrilled with HUD’s announcement on Friday.

For, effective immediately, you’ll be able to use the $8,000 income tax credit when you buy (instead of after you buy), either to increase your down payment (and lower your interest rate and monthly payment) or to cover your closing costs.

In case you didn’t understand all that, let me repeat it again — you no longer have to wait to get your tax credit until after you buy. If you’re using an FHA loan, now you can use it when you buy!

Need The Money Now?

pull-quote8This eliminates one of the real Catch-22’s for many first-time homebuyers. For, up until now, even though the $8,000 federal tax credit sounded great, buyers who were eligible to receive the credit couldn’t get their hands on it until at least  several months after they closed escrow.

Of course, if you already have enough cash for your down payment and closing costs and plan to use the tax credit to replenish Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano County’s Housing Inventory Dropping Fast; How Long Will The Supply Last?

May 26th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

Back in early January, if I had told you that we’d be talking about a scarcity of homes by summer, you’d have wondered who gave this man a license to blog.

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Yet, at the rate the housing inventory in Solano County has been falling in recent months, we soon could be in a serious supply situation.

No one’s yet predicting a return to the real estate glory days of 2003-04-05, when the active listings in many local cities were counted in dozens and not hundreds.

But if activity remains as strong as it’s been since mid-January, we could find ourselves in a serious supply shortage in a very short time. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Weekly Home Sales & Listings Report For Solano County As Of May 25, 2009

May 25th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

weekly-solano-home-reportIf you’ve been following this blog and watching Solano County’s  housing inventory and sales numbers on a weekly basis, you know that since early January, almost every city in the county has seen its sales grow and its supply decline.

And this week is no exception, as every city in our Solano market area saw another drop in its supply, with multiple- and over-asking price offers becoming a more and more common occurrence, thanks to the laws of supply and demand.

This week’s report has active listings data and pending/sales details for all five cities: Benicia, Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun and Vacaville.

Some highlights from the current report: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Weekly Home Sales & Listings Report For Solano County As Of May 18, 2009

May 18th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

weekly-solano-home-reportThis week’s Solano Housing report is hot of the presses and largely follows the same pattern that we’ve seen in recent months.

Vacaville took top honors this week in the inventory reduction category, with a 9.6% drop in the number of listings, followed by Vallejo (-5.9%).

Both Benicia and Suisun City saw a slight increase in their inventory, but only by a few homes. Benicia’s supply went from 80 to 93 and Suisun’s from 75 to 78.

Vallejo’s inventory dropped below 400 for the first time this year. Its high-water mark for the year was the week of Jan. 12, when there were 899 homes on the market. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Some Buyers Will Soon Be Able To Use The First-Time Buyer Tax Credit To Close Escrow

May 14th, 2009 categories: Buying, Loans / Financing

moneyOne of the big bugaboos for many first-time home buyers using an FHA loan in Solano and Contra Costa counties is coming up not only with the 3.5% minimum down payment, but also the necessary closing costs.

Many are able to scrape together enough to cover the down payment, but are forced to ask the seller to provide a credit to cover the closing costs.

In a market where homes aren’t selling fast, that’s usually not a problem, since a motivated seller will often willingly pay the buyer’s closing costs in order to facilitate a sale. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Weekly Home Sales & Listings Report For Solano County As Of May 11, 2009

May 12th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

weekly-solano-home-reportEvery city in our Solano County market area saw its inventory drop again this week, following a pattern we’ve seen throughout most of the county since mid-January. Closed and pending sales totals remained strong last week as well.

All of this continues to validate the feeling in local real estate circles that we’ve probably already bottomed out.

Some of this week’s highlights: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

How Long Has It Been Since Home Prices In Benicia, Vallejo & Vicinity Were This Low?

May 10th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

With home prices in Benicia, Vallejo and the rest of Solano County several hundred-thousand less than just three or four years ago, one question that often comes up is “How long has it been since prices were this low?“pull-quote5

The answer: It depends. That is, it depends on which city in Solano County you’re talking about.

Recently, I went into our multiple listing service and did a series of searches to find the last time the median price was as low as it is now for each of the five cities in our Solano market area: Benicia, Vallejo, Fairfield/Green Valley, Suisun City and Vacaville.

As you might expect, you have to go farther back in those cities where Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Vallejo CA Home Sales For April ‘09 — See Every Home That Sold Last Month

May 7th, 2009 categories: Buying, Market Update, Selling, Vallejo

It was another red-hot sales month in Vallejo — the third straight month with 200+ home sales.

To put things in perspective, last April there were only 98 sales in Vallejo. clipboard02So that’s a 223% increase over the same time last year.

The lion’s share of the homes sold in Vallejo last month were distress sale listings (bank-owned “REO’s” or short sales). Less than 6% of the sales were regular “fair-market” traditional sales.

As I reported in yesterday’s Solano County Housing Recap for April, the median price f0r Vallejo in April was $117,000. It was $125,000 in March.

Every month, I publish a list of every home that sold in Vallejo and Benicia. Here’s this month’s list for Vallejo — all 219 of them.

Some highlights from this month’s report: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Benicia CA Home Sales For April ‘09 — See Every Home That Sold Last Month

May 7th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano

So far this year, Benicia hasn’t experienced the market frenzy that the rest of the cities in Solano County have seen. clipboard05

And with only 18 sales in April, Benicia  didn’t set the world on fire last month (especially compared to Vallejo, which tallied 219 sales last month).

But there’s a silver lining to its languid sales activity –  Benicia’s home values remain the highest in the county — by a long shot.

Right now, as I reported in yesterday’s Solano County Housing Recap for April, Benicia had the highest median price in the county in April ($360,000). By comparison, that’s three times the current median price for Vallejo ($117,000).

Benicia has seen its percentage of distress sales listings (bank-owned “REO’s” or short sales) increase in recent weeks, but almost half (42%) of its listings are still with traditional “fair-market” sellers. Compare that to cities like Vallejo (15%), Suisun (18%) and Fairfield (32%). Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano County April Home Sales Totals Are In: Monthly Report Confirms Market Surge

May 6th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

For the fourth month in a row, real estate sales throughout most of Solano County were up dramatically over a year ago. solano-sales-april-09-click-here

And that combined with the continued reduction in the number of homes available for sale adds more credence to the notion that most of Solano County has probably already bottomed out.

In the lowest price ranges, we continue to see multiple offers and bidding wars, as eager first time buyers and opportunistic investors remain very active in the local real estate market. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

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