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Archive for April, 2011
It’s Official…NOW Spring Has Arrived
April 28th, 2011 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff
The calendar may say that spring arrived a month ago, but I say it’s not officially Spring until the Benicia Farmer’s Market opens.
And today was opening day for the 2011 market, which means that at long last, Spring is finally here. At least that’s the way I see it.
There’s something extra special about Opening Day — whether it’s a sporting event, a theatrical production or the Farmer’s Market. Everyone has a little extra bounce in their step and a little broader smile on their face. And that’s how it was today as farmers, merchants and shoppers all welcomed each other to the 2011 market season. Read the rest of this entry »
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My Benicia Vegetable Garden – Season II
April 28th, 2011 categories: Benicia, Fun Stuff, Local Stuff
Want A Few Free Tomato Seedlings? Read On…
About a year ago, I posted pictures of my just-planted tomato garden and had every intention of posting periodic photos so you could watch my Benicia vegetable garden grow.
Well, the garden grew and grew and grew and we enjoyed tomatoes and peppers well into October.
But despite those “best laid plans,” aside from a few early-season posts, my garden’s progress never made it all the way to blog.
Well this year, I’m making the same pledge, only this time, I plan to post my garden photo updates with a lot more regularity.
This year’s garden just got off the “ground” today. Well I use “today” loosely.
If you really want to know the truth, it really got off the ground about 10 weeks ago, when I purchased about a dozen and half heirloom seed packets from a place called the Seed Bank in Petaluma.
A week later, on President’s Day, Richard Bortolazzo (who owns our Coldwell Banker franchise) & I spent the morning filling up three 72-cell seedling trays. We put 2-3 seeds in each cell, as the directions said, figuring that only a small portion of the seeds would “take.”
Well, boy were we wrong! Read the rest of this entry »
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How Big Is Benicia-Vallejo’s Shadow Inventory?
April 7th, 2011 categories: Benicia, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Selling, Suisun City, The Economy, Vacaville, Vallejo
About a week ago, I listened to Rick Sharga, Sr. V.P. of Realty Trac, share his firm’s current foreclosure numbers. In his talk, one statistic really stood out: right now, there are 1 million foreclosures in the U.S., yet only 300,000 of them have come on the market.
In other words, 7 out of every 10 U.S. homes that the banks already own haven’t even hit the market yet. That’s the “shadow inventory” that you may have heard people talk about.
It prompted me to look at our local market a little closer and see how big our own shadow inventory is right now. The numbers were pretty startling. Not quite as large as the nationwide figures that Mr. Sharga talked about, but still pretty shocking nonetheless.
I looked at all five cities in our primary market area (Benicia, Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun City & Vacaville) and found that about 3 of every 5 foreclosed homes have not yet come on the market. Read the rest of this entry »
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