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Archive for April, 2010

Trailer Park Coming To Benicia This Friday

April 12th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff

Trailer GraphicBefore you charge down to City Hall to find out just what in the heck Benicia’s planning department or city council was thinking, relax.

Benicia’s not really getting a new trailer park of the Airstream / Winnebago variety.

No, the trailer park I was referring to in today’s headline is the Benicia Old Town Theater Group’s spring production: The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which debuts Friday for a one-month run in downtown Benicia.

According to the BOTTG web site, ‘Trailer Park’ is “a comic fable about women in a Florida trailer park and Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

The Calm After The Storm

April 12th, 2010 categories: Benicia

There’s nothing like springtime in Benicia — especially in the first few hours after a storm starts to clear. After several days of unseasonably wet weather, the skies finally parted today. And as they did, some beautiful spring vistas unfolded (not to mention some some pretty good gusts of wind). I snapped these photos of Benicia’s waterfront area late Monday afternoon.

IMG_1449

Big puffy clouds over the hills above Port Costa

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Opening Day On The Strait This Saturday

April 12th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff

Benicia Yacht Club Opening DayHopefully the weatherman will cooperate and all of this early April rain will be a thing of the past come Saturday.

For that’s when the Benicia Yacht Club’s annual “Opening Day On The Strait’ is slated to take place.

Benicia RegattaAlways a popular community event, there will be arts & crafts booths, boardwalk-style games, a rubber ducky race, music, food, drink and of course, the official blessing of the fleet, right on the shores of the tranquil Carquinez Strait.  Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Mortgage Rates Up This Past Week; How Will That Affect Solano County Home Buyers?

April 8th, 2010 categories: Loans / Financing

Interest Rates Going UpIn the first week since the government officially exited the mortgage assistance business, interest rates have started to rise, as many experts predicted would happen.

Highest Rates In 8 Months

Freddie Mac released its weekly mortgage market survey earlier today (see the left sidebar) , which shows that the average 30-year mortgage is 1/8% higher today than it was a week ago (5.21% this week vs. 5.08%) and the highest its been since the middle of last August.

Now the big unknown is whether this is the start of a continued climb to even higher rates or just Read the rest of this entry »

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Sold Your Solano Home As A Short Sale Last Year? Calif Tax Relief May Be On The Way

April 6th, 2010 categories: Foreclosures / Short Sales

If you sold your home as part of a short sale last year and have had a hard time sleeping lately due to California’s decision to possibly collect Short Sale Taxestaxes on the debt relief your lender provided when you sold your home, that looming nightmare might go away in matter of days.

That’s because, as the Sacramento Bee reported earlier today, California legislators will likely vote later this week on a bill that would reverse that decision and allow short-sellers to enjoy the same tax-free benefits that are currently available on their federal tax return.

Normally, debt forgiveness is considered income and subject to taxation. However, early in the economic meltdown, Congress changed the tax code to provide a waiver for many who had lost their home or been forced to short-sell their home. Those people would have otherwise been hit with a monstrous federal tax bill.

But in late March, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a state bill that would have changed California’s tax code to mirror that federal tax exemption. Read the rest of this entry »

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6 Big Real Estate Changes For Benicia-Vallejo Home Buyers & Sellers This Month

April 5th, 2010 categories: Buying, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Loans / Financing, Selling, The Economy

Big ChangesIf you’re planning to buy or sell a home in Benicia, Vallejo or even anywhere else in Solano County, you may need a scorecard to keep track of all the changes that either already have occurred or will take place by the end of April.

I’ve been a real estate agent since 1995. And before that I worked in the title and new homes sectors of our business — dating all the way back to 1978. And in all the years I’ve been in the real estate business, I can’t remember another time when this many changes occurred in one single month.

So if you’ve got your scorecard ready, here’s a quick overview of some of the changes that are taking place in April: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Pending Sales May Be Up 8% Nationally, But That’s Not The Case Here in Solano County

April 5th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Vallejo

Graph with Q MarkThere were all sorts of stories on the internet today from real estate bloggers bubbling over the National Assn. of Realtor’s report earlier in the day that the Pending Home Sales Index for February was up more than 8% from January and 17% above where it was a year ago.

In touting the huge increase, NAR suggested that the one-month jump “may signal the early stages of a second surge of home sales this spring.”

So it was no surprise when many of my real estate colleagues all over the country jumped on that press release and quickly spun their own idyllic stories about how the real estate market was ready to take off again.

Still, as someone who tracks the housing numbers here in Benicia, Vallejo and the rest of Solano County on a regular basis, I had to scratch my head.

For just a few weeks ago, here on this very site, Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

What You Need To Know About California’s New $10,000 Home Buyer Tax Credits

April 3rd, 2010 categories: Buying

$10k CA CreditAs you probably already know, California recently adopted a new first-time home buyer’s tax credit, which goes into effect for homes that close escrow after May 1. (This is different than the soon-to-expire federal tax credit.)

California actually authorized two separate home buyer tax credits: a $10,000 first-time buyer credit and a $10,000 new home buyer credit.

The state’s Franchise Tax Board released more details on both new credits a few days ago. Here are some important points: Read the rest of this entry »

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A Benicia Landmark Slated For The Scrap Heap

April 2nd, 2010 categories: Benicia, Local Stuff

Mothball SignOne of Solano County’s most recognizable landmarks will be gone for good before the end of this decade.

I’m talking about the mothball fleet — a collection of old warships sitting in Suisun Bay just east of the Benicia Bridge. Put out to pasture decades ago, these once-proud military vessels, now deteriorated and decayed, are now about to head to their final resting place — a metal scrapyard.

That fate was sealed a number of years ago, but not much has happened up until now amid concerns that moving these massive vessels would allow contaminants to pollute the waters all along its journey. Or that Read the rest of this entry »

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So Far This Year, Housing Supply Is WAY UP In Vallejo, Fairfield & Vacaville

April 1st, 2010 categories: Benicia, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

Last year, I started tracking the housing inventory and sales activity in Solano County on a weekly basis and if you followed this blog in 2009, you know that for the year, the inventory was way down for every city in the county.Weekly Inventory Report Screenshot

This year, though, has been a completely different story so far — especially in Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville, where the supply of available homes (active listings on the MLS) has soared by up to 55% from where it was at the beginning of the year.

Look at the year-to-date percentage increases for each city in our Solano County market area:

  • Vallejo – Up 55%
  • Vacaville – Up 31%
  • Fairfield/Green Valley – Up 26%
  • Benicia – Up 9%
  • Suisun City – Up 5%

A Huge Jump, But Remember From Whence We Came

That’s a pretty huge increase in just three short months. To put things in perspective, though, you have to remember Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »