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Solano’s November Home Sales: More Proof That Things Finally Seem To Be Getting Better

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

Solano Housing Report -- Nov 09Everyone’s been looking for proof that the economy is on the mend.

Well, at the risk of getting too overly giddy just yet, I have to admit that the November home sales numbers for Solano County last month looked awfully encouraging on several fronts.

Before I go any further, let me give my monthly disclaimer, since there’s always a danger in reading too much into home sales statistics from just one single month. The smaller the sample size, the greater the chance of the numbers being skewed due to a few random sales that might tilt the numbers too far in one direction.

So that’s why a quarterly report is usually a far better gauge of the true market. However, you’ll have to wait another month for that report, since we still have to get through the rest of December.

Nevertheless, that disclaimer aside, November’s home sales statistics for Solano County showed an increase in the median sales price over the previous month for every city in our Solano market area.

Solano Monthly Median Home Sales Price Thru Nov 09County-wide, the median price jumped to $219,000, which was easily its high-water mark for the year. That’s $26,000 above last month’s median of $195,000. It’s also only the second time all year that the median has broken the $200,000 mark.

Most of that huge increase came from three cities: Vallejo (+19%), Benicia (+10%) and Fairfield (+8%). The other two cities (Vacaville and Suisun) saw their median sales price go up marginally (1% above October’s figures).

Nevertheless, it’s only the second time this year that every city in our Solano market area has seen its median sales price incresase over the previous month.

Here are some city-by-city highlights:

Benicia

  • In a nutshell, Benicia had higher prices, more closed sales and fewer distress sales last month. The November median price for Benicia was $410,925 — a huge climb from October’s $374,000 and the highest its been since January.
  • There were 32 closed sales in Benicia in November, which is its one-month high for the year.
  • Meanwhile, Benicia’s percentage of distress sales to regular sales plummeted to 37%. Up until November, it had been hovering in the 50% range.
  • Benicia also had the county’s most expensive home last month — $1 million.

Vallejo

  • Vallejo also saw higher prices and fewer distress sales last month. Its median priced skyrocketed in November — to $178,175. That’s a $28,000 jump from October’s $150,000 and is the highest it’s been all year…and almost back to where it was last November ($181,000).
  • The percentage of distress sales to regular sales, which was consistently 90%-plus earlier this year has now dropped down to 80%, which is another good sign. In other words, there are twice as many regular sales today in Vallejo than there were in spring and early summer.

Fairfield/Green Valley

  • Fairfield saw its median price climb from $200,000 to $215,000 last month. That was its second highest total all year.
  • However, there were 18 percent fewer sales than in  October, which isn’t surprising considering that the housing supply dropped in the two preceding months.
  • The percentage of distress sales in Fairfield was 78%, which was 5% higher than it was in October. But it’s still far better than it was earlier this year, when it was in the 80%-93% range.
  • Fairfield had the county’s least expensive home in November ($31,100).

Suisun City

  • Suisun saw the biggest drop in sales volume in the county last month, with 34% fewer sales than in October. But the median price was up (albeit only slightly): $189,900 in November vs. $187,500 in October.
  • November was the second straight month that Suisun’s percentage of distress sales was higher than the previous month (76% in November / 71% in October). But it’s also still far lower than it was in spring and summer (81%-96%).

Vacaville

  • Vacaville had a 17% increase in its sales volume last month — one of only two cities in the county with more closed sales than the previous month.
  • The median sales price in Vacaville was also higher, but not by much ($226,823 in November vs. $225,00 in October).
  • Its percentage of distress sales was 68%, which is up 3% from October. It had been in the high- 70%/low-80% range up until August.

The full Solano County Housing Report for November has all sorts of additional details and breakdowns.

To view previous monthly or quarterly reports, click on the links at the bottom of this post. And for this month’s complete recap of every home sold in Benicia and Vallejo, click here.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, 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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