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Are Distress-Sales Listings Dominating The Market In Your Town?

May 3rd, 2009 categories: Benicia, Contra Costa, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Investors, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

distressed-property-recap-shadow-4-27-09New Distress Sale Listing Report Shows Similar Percentages, But Far Fewer Actual Distress-Sale Listings


Like the old song says, the more things change, the more they stay the same. At least that’s the case when it comes to comparing our latest Distressed Property Update Report to the one I prepared back in late February.

That’s because the same five cities that led our market area in the percentage of distress-sale listings in Feburary again top the list in the current report. Those ‘honors’ again go to Pittsburg, Antioch, Vallejo, Oakley and Suisun City.

pull-quote1In Pittsburg and Antioch, at least 90% of the active listings were distress-sales (either bank-owned “REO’s” or short sales).  The next three on the list didn’t fare much better, with 82%-85% distress sales.

The region’s highest priced cities (Lamorinda, Alamo and Danville) remained at the opposite end of the spectrum There, less than 20% of the listings are distress sales.

Here in Solano County, after Vallejo’s 85%, the next highest city is Fairfield (68%), followed by Benicia and Vacaville.

Benicia and Vacaville actually swapped places, as Benicia’s percentage climbed from 51% in February to 58% and Vacaville’s dropped dramatically — all the way from 65% to 51%.

While the percentages may be largely the same as what they were in late February, the actual number of distress sale listings is down substantially in those cities with the highest percentages.

That’s due in part to the foreclosure moratoriums that were in place through March. But it’s also due to low interest rates, the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and incredibly low prices — all of which have caused sales to surge in the below-$300,000 price range.

Take Vallejo for example. If you follow our weekly housing inventory report, you know that back in late February there were 796 homes on the market. As of Apr. 27, there were only 462 — that’s a 42% drop in the housing supply in just two months.

To see city-by-city totals for all 19 cities in our Solano and Central/East Contra Costa market area, click here. A few highlights from our custom report:

  • Vallejo had the most REO (bank-owned) listings in the region with 172. That’s less than half of Feburary’s total (442).
  • In Suisun City, where the housing inventory has dropped by 59% since the first of the year, 82% of its listings are still distress sales.
  • The cities with the fewest REOs are Moraga (1), Clayton (3), Lafayette (3), Orinda (4) and Alamo (5).
  • The most short sale listings are in Vallejo (219), followed by Antioch (214) , Fairfield-Green Valley (148), Concord (144), Pittsburg (134) and Brentwood (108).
  • The cities with the fewest short sales are Moraga (3), Orinda (5), Alamo (11) and Clayton (11).

Our Distressed-Property Report is updated every 6-8 weeks. To  stay current on the market’s activity, be sure to read or subscribe to our weekly Solano County Home Sales & Listings Report, with the latest real estate listing, pending and sales statistics for each city in Solano County.

Coming later this week: How Far Back In Time Have Prices Really Fallen?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Benicia, Contra Costa, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Investors, 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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