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Archive for November, 2009
Small Town Benicia Will Shine Friday Night
November 30th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff
If you ever wanted to capture the essence of what small town living is like in Benicia, just wander downtown this Friday night.
That’s when the whole town will literally descend on First Street for the town’s annual Holiday Open House.
And if this year’s event is anything like those from years’ past, there will be holiday carolers, street musicians, wine tasting, an antique fire truck decked out in holiday lights and perhaps even horse and wagon rides. Read the rest of this entry »
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Free Dinners In Benicia…
November 25th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Local Stuff
It’s dinner-time again in Benicia. And there’s all you can eat at no charge.
The only condition: you must have four legs, horns and a scraggly little beard.
It’s that time of year again. The time of year when the goats from Goats-R-Us descend on the hills of Southampton and munch the fresh growth to their heart’s content.
They usually show up in the fall and again in spring and help “mow” down the weeds as part of Benicia’s fire prevention program.
They’re not only a very Green alternative to tractors and mulchers, but they’re also a fascinating site to see. It’s pretty amazing to turn the corner Read the rest of this entry »
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Weekly Solano Real Estate Report For Nov. 23: Inventory Spikes In Vallejo & Suisun
November 25th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
Here’s this week’s Solano County Real Estate Report — with details on the number of pending and closed sales for last week, plus the current inventory totals for each city in our Solano County market area.
The biggest news this week was an unexpected surge in listing inventory for Vallejo, where the supply increased by 20 homes from the week before.
That’s only the second time this year (and the first since Jan. 12) that Vallejo’s supply has climbed by at least 20 homes in one week.
Suisun City also saw its inventory rise by double-digits. With a +10 in its active listings total since last week, that works out to a 20% increase.
However, the inventory in Suisun had dropped by 9 listings over the previous two weeks, Read the rest of this entry »
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Who Needs New England!
November 25th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff
So who says we don’t have seasons here in California?
Growing up on the west coast, we’ve always heard how wonderful Fall is in New England. But driving around Southampton in Benicia earlier today, I couldn’t help but notice our own fall colors.
And as the pictures below illustrate, I think our autumns can be pretty spectacular themselves!
Plus, we don’t have to worry about shoveling snow or salting the roads. (Okay, they have playoff football every year back in New England…I’ll give them that!)
Enjoy these colorful photos of Autumn Benicia-style — taken the afternoon before Thanksgiving ‘09 (click on each image to enlarge the photo).
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Read the rest of this entry »
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Weekly Solano Real Estate Report For Nov. 16: No Huge Changes Since Last Week
November 16th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
As we approach the holidays and migrate towards the end of the year, the big swings in inventory that we saw earlier in the year are likely to diminish.
And this week was a sneak preview of that — with very little changes in Solano County since last week.
The five cities in our Solano market area all saw their inventory go up or down slightly, with no major spikes in either direction.
Benicia (6), Vallejo (3) and Fairfield (3) all saw a slight inventory increase, while Suisun (-5) and Vacaville (-3) saw their net supply of active home listings decline.
In terms of closed sales, Benicia was the only city of the five that had more closings last week (5) than its year-to-date average (4.5). But that was less than half of last week’s total, which was Benicia’s high-water-mark for the year. Read the rest of this entry »
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Benicia & Vallejo Home Sales For Oct. ‘09 — The Entire List Of Every Closed Sale
November 12th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Market Update, Vallejo
Wonder how much your neighbor’s home sold for? Want to find out how close to the asking price the seller around the corner came? Those answers and more are just a click away.
Every month, I post a list of every home that closed escrow the previous month in Benicia and Vallejo. To download this month’s reports, click on the link towards the bottom of this post.
Some highlights from this month’s Home Sales Reports for Benicia and Vallejo: Read the rest of this entry »
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Weekly Solano Real Estate Report For Nov. 9: Fairfield’s Supply Spikes, Benicia Sales Soar
November 11th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
This week’s Solano Real Estate Report was pretty much status quo, but for a few surprising numbers. As the headline indicates, those numbers were in Fairfield and Benicia.
Fairfield’s inventory unexpectedly skyrocketed by more than 10% in one week — from 205 active listings a week ago to 227 right now.
That’s in stark contrast to Benicia, Vallejo, Suisun and Vacaville; the supply this week only differed from last week by four active listings in all four communities.
Benicia’s sales total for the week was also off the charts. After totaling just three sales the previous week, Benicia reported 11 closed sales last week — which is by far the highest total of the year for Benicia.
With an average of 4.6 closed sales per week, Benicia’s previous high this year was 9 — and that had only happened once.
What makes this past week’s 11 closed sales even more surprising is that it occurred Read the rest of this entry »
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Solano Monthly Home Sales Report For Oct. ‘09
November 9th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
I just finished downloading and compiling October’s 2009’s final home sales totals for Solano County.
In a nutshell, the numbers ended up right about where I expected.
No big surprises, but rather more of what we’ve been seeing for the past few months: stabilizing prices and smaller inventories, with overall totals similar to where they’ve been in recent months but lower than they were at the same time a year ago.
Median Sales Price
As the graph below illustrates, the median sales price was up slightly in several cities and down slightly in a few others — but overall, the numbers aren’t that far off from where they were in August and September.
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HOT NEWS…Congress Extends First-Timer Tax Credit & Adds A New One For Move-Ups
November 5th, 2009 categories: Buying, The Economy
$8,000 For First-Timers, $6,500 For Some Move-Ups
Congress earlier today overwhelmingly approved long-awaited legislation extending the tax credit for first-time buyers and adopting a new tax credit for many move-up buyers.
Assuming President Obama signs the bill, which he’s already said he’ll do, the new law will go into effect as soon the existing tax credit expires at the end of this month.
So if you’re in escrow and qualify for the current $8,000 first-time buyer credit, as long as you close escrow by Nov. 30, nothing changes.
The new law extends the credit to Apr. 30, 2010 and allows an additional 60 day extension to close escrow for those who are already in contract by that date. Read the rest of this entry »
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Weekly Solano Real Estate Report For Nov. 2: High Sales Numbers Last Week, However…
November 5th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo
Last week was the last week of the month, so that usually means higher than normal sales totals, since many buyers want to close that week in order to reduce their out-of-pocket closing costs.
So when you see the sales total for last week, which show far higher sales in most of the cities in our Solano County market area than in recent weeks, don’t get too excited just yet.
Some of the sales which contributed to those higher-than-normal numbers are probably related more to the time of the month than to a sudden change in the market.
Nevertheless, here are some highlights worth pointing out: Read the rest of this entry »
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