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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

Row of housesAbout 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 »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

April Solano Home Sales Report: Prices Holding Steady And Up County-Wide Over Last Year

May 11th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

April’s home sales numbers are in for Solano County and on a county-wide basis, the median price last month was $200,000 — exactly the same as it was in March.

Vacaville, Vallejo and Suisun all reported median prices that were almost the same as the previous month, while Benicia’s median was way up and Fairfield’s was noticeably down.

April Median Sales PriceThe huge jump in Benicia’s median price is probably Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano Home Buyers Get 2-Month Extension On 3.5% Fannie Mae Closing Cost Credit

April 28th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville

Fannie Mae 3.5 Credit Non-Investors Who Buy A Fannie Mae Repo Can Still Get The Credit If They Close By June 30


In what amounts to an unexpected gift to buyers of Fannie Mae bank-owned homes in Solano County, the secondary mortgage market giant just announced that its 3.5% closing cost credit incentive program, which was scheduled to end Apr. 30, has been extended to June 30.

So if you buy one of the 96 Fannie Mae-owned homes in Solano County that are either presently for sale or about to come on the market and can close escrow in the next two months, you could be eligible for up to 3.5% in credits at close of escrow.

Of the 96 homes for sale in Solano, 89 are Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano Pending Home Sales Up, Inventory Down As Tax Credit Draws To A Close

April 28th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville

Whether it’s due to the impending federal tax credit deadline or just the normal spring real estate market surge, home sale activity has definitely picked up in recent weeks in Solano County, which in turn weekly-solano-home-reporthas caused the supply of homes for sale to drop.

This past week marks the first time all year that all five cities in our Solano County market area have seen their inventory of homes decline in the same week.

Vallejo (-20) and Fairfield (-24) both experienced double-digit drops in their housing supply, while the other three cities saw a nominal decrease (Benicia & Fairfield -4 and Suisun -2).

Yet, even that is a significant change from Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Inventory Of Available Homes Still Way Up For The Year Throughout Solano County

April 19th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

weekly-solano-home-reportYou’d never believe it if you talked to most buyers, but the inventory of homes for sale throughout Solano County is still up dramatically for the year.

Every city in our Solano market area has at least 20% more homes on the market today than it did at the beginning of January.

The leader is Vallejo, with a whopping 55% increase in 3-1/2 months. There are 374 homes on the market there right now, compared to 242 on Jan. 4.

The other four cities’ year-to-date increases, in descending order: Vacaville +37%, Fairfield +26%, Suisun + 24%, Benicia +20%.

Now, if you’re a buyer who’s been involved in countless multiple-offer negotiations, Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Quarterly Stats Paint Uncertain Picture For Solano’s Real Estate Market

April 14th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

1sr Qtr Report - Click HereI just downloaded and analyzed the 1st quarter housing numbers for Solano County and to be honest, it’s hard to tell exactly where we’re headed.

In fact, it’s hard to even figure out exactly where we’ve been. Or what these first quarter numbers really tell us.

Year-Over-Year (1st Qtr 2010 vs. Q1 2009)

If you look at the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period a year ago, you’ll see that in the county’s most affordable cities (Vallejo, Fairfield & Suisun), prices are definitely higher today than they were for Q1 of 2009. But in the county’s most stable markets (Benicia and Vacaville) they dropped.

Countywide, prices were up 8%, from $185,703 last year to $200,000 in 2010. Here’s the rundown for the five cities in our Solano market area: Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

March Home Sales Activity Soars Throughout Solano County

April 13th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

March Solano Home Sales ReportMeanwhile, Prices Drop In Benicia & Vallejo But Climb In The North County

After a February in which home sales activity in Solano County dropped noticeably, it roared back with a gusto in March, perhaps in part due to the upcoming end of the federal tax credit program.

Solano Up 44% Over Last Month

All five cities in our Solano market area showed robust gains in the number of closed sales last month. Countywide, the number of home sales in Solano was up 44% over February.

Vallejo led the way with an incredible 71% increase, followed by Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

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 »

Ugly February Home Sale Numbers For Solano County: Are We Taking A Step Back?

March 15th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

With the exception of  Suisun City, February was a pretty ugly month for home sales and prices in the other four cities in our Solano County market area, according to the monthly statistics I just downloaded.

County-wide, the median sales price for February was $190,000 — a 7% drop from January’s $205,000. It hasn’t been that low since last June.

Contributing to that drop-off was Benicia (-26% from January), Fairfield (-19%), Vacaville (-9%) and Vallejo (-4%).

Feb Median Price GraphAlong with prices, the number of closed sales was also down throughout most of the county: Benicia -25%, Vallejo -17%, and Vacaville -6%. Fairfield, however, posted a 6% increase.

But the only city which really bucked the downward trend Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Any Light At The End Of The End Of Solano’s Foreclosure Tunnel?

February 17th, 2010 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

Everyone agrees that the real key to restoring the economy and home values lies in working through that huge backlog of distressed properties.Pull Quote

For, the sooner we get to a point where the lion’s share of active listings are being sold by regular sellers with equity rather than banks or upside-down borrowers, the sooner this ugly market will be behind us.

About six months ago, I downloaded the foreclosure statistics for all five cities in our Solano County market area and back then almost 60% of what had already been foreclosed upon had not yet come on the market. Most banks were keeping what has become known as their “shadow inventory” off the market.

Since that time, the banks have started to release more inventory, but rather than a flood, the release of new bank-owned listings has been more of a trickle. So a few days ago, I decided to download the raw foreclosure data and see if anything had changed.

REO Graph for Solano - 2-15-10In a nutshell, as the numbers above and below illustrate, it looks like we still have quite a way to go before the local Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »