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April 2010 Benicia & Vallejo Home Sales

Rod Herman — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:06:02 +0000

Curious what that Benicia home down the street sold for last month? Wonder how much your Vallejo neighbor sold his home sold for? Or how long it took a certain Vallejo or Benicia home to sell?

Just download our April Benicia and Vallejo Home Sale Reports for those answers and more. Some highlights from April’s Benicia & Vallejo Home Sale Reports appears below.

Included in each report is every closed sale from April 2010 — including the address, sales price, days-on-market, net price change, and whether the home was a regular or distress sale (short sale or “REO”/foreclosure).

We post our Benicia and Vallejo Home Sale Reports along with other Solano County home sales reports every month, so be sure to visit HomeSection.com regularly. You can also access previous reports by visiting our Home Sales Report Archives page.

Some highlights from April’s BENICIA home sale report:

Highest Price — $690,000 (1433 O’Hare Dr.)
Lowest Price — $68,000 on 900 Southampton Rd. #81)
Total Sales — 34
Distress Sales — 22 (14 REO / 8 Short Sales)
Regular Sales – 12
Total Sold Above Original List Price — 7
Total Sold Below Original List Price — 19
Biggest Net Price Change — $219,999 (940 West K St.)
Longest Time On Market –414 Days (940 West K St.)

Highlights from April’s VALLEJO home sale report:

Highest Price — $397,000 (9280 Hallmark Dr.)
Lowest Price — $27,500 (424 Corcoran Ave. #4)
Total Sales — 143
Distress Sales — 111 (76 REO / 35 Short Sales)
Regular Sales – 32
Total Sold Above Original List Price — 77
Total Sold Below Original List Price — 51
Biggest Net Price Change — $352,000 (279 Catalina Way)
Longest Time On Market –315 Days (114 Roney Ave.)

To see the full report, with home-by-home totals for every Benicia & Vallejo home that closed escrow in Feb. 2010, click on either of the two buttons below.

If you have questions on any of these properties or would like information on what’s currently available, please contact us or visit our Home Search page to search our multiple listing service. We’re always happy to set up customized automated MLS searches for our clients and prospective clients.

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

Rod Herman — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:07:23 +0000

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.

The huge jump in Benicia’s median price is probably more a correction of last month’s equally huge drop than an indication that prices are suddenly going through the roof in Benicia.

Keep in mind, too, that Benicia’s relatively small sample size means that a few random sales at either end of the price spectrum can easily skew the numbers.

Meanwhile, the number of sales in Solano was down 10% county-wide, but up in Benicia and Fairfield.

At first glance, the big story seems to be Vallejo’s 28% drop in sales last month — from 198 in March to 143 in April. But before jumping to any conclusions, you have to look back a few months. For April’s total is still the second strongest month of 2010 and close to November’s and December’s totals.

Compared to last April, prices in Solano County are up 14%, led by Vallejo (up 28%) and Suisun (+15%). The number of sales, meanwhile, was down 17% county-wide, mainly due, I suspect, to the smaller inventory of homes on the market this April compared to last April.

You can see all of April’s Solano home sale statistics in detail by downloading April’s Solano County Home Sales Report. Archived copies of previous reports are also available by following the links near the bottom of this post.

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

Rod Herman — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:15:17 +0000

You’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, you’re bound to have a hard time believing that the inventory is any higher today than it was three or four months ago.

And, while the local housing supply is indeed up by a very large percentage, in Vallejo, Benicia and Fairfield, today’s numbers still pale in comparison to where we were last year at this time. Fairfield’s inventory today is 31% lower than a year ago, Vallejo is off 28% and Benicia is down 13%.

However, the opposite is true in Vacaville and Suisun, where the inventory of homes is 28% and 20% higher, respectively, than last year April.

I track the inventory of homes for sale in all five cities in our Solano market area on a weekly basis. I also keep track of the number of pending and closed sales in Benicia, Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun and Vacaville, too. Our Solano County Real Estate Report has cumulative week-by-week statistics for all five cities.

We publish this weekly report on HomeSection.com on a periodic basis. So be sure to check back regularly to see all the latest housing trends and statistics for Benicia, Vallejo the rest of our Solano County market area.

And, if you’re planning to buy or sell, we’d love to assist you and put our market expertise to work for you. To see the current housing supply for any city in Solano County, be sure to visit our Home Search page. For more information on any of those properties or to discuss selling your home, please contact us.

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Benicia-Vallejo Monthly Home Sale Report: Details On Every Closed Sale For Mar. 2010

Rod Herman — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:03:57 +0000

Want to know how much your neighbor’s home sold for or how long a certain home took to sell. It’s all here in the March Benicia and Vallejo Home Sale Reports.

Both reports show the address, sales price, days on market, net price change from start to finish and whether the home was a regular sale, short sale or REO (foreclosure).

You can download both reports by clicking on the links below. I publish this and other local Solano County home sales reports monthly, so be sure to visit HomeSection.com regularly.

You can also access previous Benicia & Vallejo home sales recaps on our Home Sales Report Archives page.

Some highlights from March’s BENICIA home sale report:

Highest Price — $515,000 on Olive Branch Ct.
Lowest Price — $105,000 on Southampton Rd.
Distress Sales — 21
Regular Sales – 8
Biggest Net Price Change — $85,000 (Brentwood Dr.)
Total Sold Above Original List Price — 9
Total Sold Below Original List Price — 16
Longest Time On Market –216 Days (London Cir.)

Some highlights from March’s VALLEJO home sale report:

Highest Price — $450,000 on Landmark Dr.
Lowest Price — $18,000 on N. Camino Alto
Distress Sales — 150
Regular Sales – 48
Biggest Net Price Change — $182,000 (Buckskin Pl.)
Total Sold Above Original List Price — 97
Total Sold Below Original List Price — 88
Longest Time On Market — 391 Days (Miller Ave.)

To see the full report, with home-by-home totals for every Benicia & Vallejo home that closed escrow in Feb. 2010, click on either of the two buttons below.

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

Rod Herman — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:00:56 +0000

I 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:

Since the inventory of homes was so much larger a year ago than it is today, you’d expect fewer sales this year than last. And that’s exactly how it played out (at least everywhere except Benicia, where sales were up 49% over a year ago — but Benicia’s sample size is very small, so don’t read too much into that statistic).

Huge Drop In Distress Sales, But Don’t Get Too Excited

The number of distress sales in Q1 was dramatically lower throughout most of the county (Benicia was again the lone exception with a 26% increase). Everywhere else in our Solano market area, the number of REO’s and short sales dropped by at least 1/3 compared to a year ago.

On the surface sounds pretty significant. But then with fewer overall sales, it just follows that you’d expect to see fewer distress sales, too. So while it’s good to see a reduction in the number of distress sales, don’t get too excited by that statistic.

A lot has definitely changed since the first three months of 2009. Back then, the market was still trying to find a bottom and there weren’t yet any signs of economic recovery. So most of these increases and decreases are fairly predictable.

Q1 Compared To The Last Quarter Of ‘09

What I was really waiting for was to see how the current quarter compared to the last quarter of 2009. For if the market was really starting to move forward, you’d expect to see some encouraging numbers.

Well, here’s how they shaped up:

As you can see, on a countywide basis, prices were down 3% in the first three months of 2010, compared to the last three months of ‘09. Overall, the change wasn’t very remarkable — up a few percentage points in one city, down a couple of ticks in another. Benicia was the only city with a huge disparity, but again, remember my warning about its low sample size.

Both the number of distress sales and the number of total sales dropped by almost identical percentages throughout the county.

So while a 16% drop in distress sales would be very big news if the total number of sales stayed the same, alas, that decrease is just a reflection of the drop in overall sales. Certainly not a game-changer.

So What Does All This Mean?

So like I said at the top of this post, the more you digest these 1st quarter numbers, the more you realize that they don’t really paint a clear picture of where we’re heading. Here’s what they say to me:

1. Inventory remains rather low (though it has increased throughout the county since January).

2. Prices have pretty much stabilized in those cities where prices fell the most (Vallejo, Fairfield, Suisun), but still may have a little more to give in higher-priced cities like Benicia & Vacaville.

Whether prices will move higher again in the near future or stay in their current range remains to be seen. I don’t see anything in these numbers that points to a sudden price spike, but I also don’t see anything that suggests a sudden drop.

In other words, as I said earlier, we seem to be in a period of uncertainty right now.

If you’d like to see a complete breakdown of the first quarter’s statistics, be sure to download our full 1st Quarter 2010 Solano Home Sale Report. You can see past reports on our Solano Home Sales Report Archives page.

Questions about our quarterly report or want information about buying or selling a home in Solano County or Central/East Contra Costa? Please contact us.

And, if you’d like to search for single family homes, condominiums or townhomes in Solano County, be sure to visit our Home Search page. You can even set up a customized personal search and receive MLS listings directly in your email inbox whenever new listings or price changes occur in our MLS.

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March Home Sales Activity Soars Throughout Solano County

Rod Herman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:50:50 +0000

Meanwhile, 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 Benicia (61%), Vacaville (56%), Suisun (34%) and Fairfield (9%).

Prices Up 5% Countywide, But…

Prices, though, were another story. Up north, in Fairfield, Vacaville and Suisun, prices were up. In Vallejo and Benicia they were down. County-wide, the median price climbed from $190,000 to $200,000 — a very healthy 5% increase.

Fairfield had a huge one-month gain, as its median jumped 18% — from $190,000 in February to $225,000 in March. Vacaville was up 9%, from $215,000 to $234,325. And Suisun’s median of $200,000 was 2% higher than a month ago.

Vallejo, meanwhile, was down a mere 1% at $148,500 (from $150,000 in Feb.). The big drop, though, was in Benicia, where the median plummeted from $311,375 to $251,000 — a 19% decline.

Before You Get Too Concerned About Benicia

Now, before you jump to any conclusions about Benicia, remember that 29 closed sales is a very small sample size, especially when you consider that there were 529 home sales countywide in March.

And, as I’ve cautioned many times before, there’s a real danger in reading too much into a single month’s median price figures, since a few extra sales at one end of the price spectrum can often skew the median, particularly in smaller cities like Benicia or Suisun, where the sample size is quite low.

Quarterly figures are often much more relevant, for they allow you to smooth out the highs and lows over a 3-month period. I’ll be publishing the 1st Quarter 2010 numbers in the next day or two.

In terms of comparison, Benicia’s $251,000 median price for March is incredibly 40% lower than it was as recently as January, when the city reported its highest total in over a year, at $420,000. So I suspect the quarterly numbers for Benicia will paint a somewhat different story than March alone.

Compared To March 2009

Compared to a year ago, the number of sales is down 14% countywide, which is due in large part to there being far fewer homes on the market today than there were a year ago, particularly in the most affordable cities in the county.

At the end of March, for example, Vallejo reported 374 active listings. A year earlier, there were 629. Fairfield had 301 this March and 461 at the end of Mar. ‘09. So with fewer homes to choose from, you’d expect fewer sales.

Benicia was the only city in Solano County which bucked the year-to-year decrease. It reported 29 closed home sales in Mar. ‘10 compared to 20 in Mar. ‘09 — a 45% increase. But again, we’re talking small sample-size.

Download The Complete March Report

Our monthly Solano County Housing Report features three pages of statistics — probably enough data to satisfy the even the most ardent number hound.

You’ll find statistics for the county and all five cities in our market area for March 2010 plus cumulative totals for the past 12 months. There’s also a year-to-year comparison so you can see how each city in the county fared compared to Mar. ‘09

Be sure to look for our 1st Quarter Solano County 2010 Home Sales Report as well as our Benicia & Vallejo Home Sales Reports. Both will be published in the next few days. A complete archive of previous reports is available by clicking on the links below.

If you have additional questions about this month’s report or would like information about buying or selling a home in Solano County’s complex housing market, please contact us.

If you’d like to search for single family homes, condominiums or townhomes in Benicia, Vallejo or the rest of Solano County, be sure to visit our Home Search page. You can even set up a customized personal search and receive MLS listings directly in your email inbox whenever new listings or price changes occur in our MLS.

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

Rod Herman — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:41:55 +0000

There 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, I had posted the following story: Ugly February Home Sale Numbers For Solano County: Are We Taking A Step Back?

In that post, according to my statistics, February’s total number of sales was down 6% in Solano County. And the median price was also down from the previous month — by 7%.

That made it very hard for me to believe that the pending sales totals would really be up dramatically, despite what was being broadcast all over the internet.

So I compared Solano’s pending sales statistics for both months and found that there were 389 pending sales in January and 378 in February.

Since there were three more days in January than February, that’s almost a wash. Maybe even a slight edge for February. But certainly not anything like the 8% gain in pending sales that was being bandied about nationally.

Towards the end of NAR’s press release, it did mention that here in the west, the pending sales index did actually drop in February by almost 5%.Of course that wasn’t the figure that made headlines.

In a few days, I’ll be compiling the final March numbers for Solano County as well as those for the first quarter of 2010. Those quarterly numbers should give us a much better barometer of what really lies ahead for Solano County.

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

Rod Herman — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:10:07 +0000

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.

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 where we were in January, after a year in which the housing inventory dropped 75% in Suisun, 72% in Vallejo and 67% in Fairfield.

So even though every city in the county’s numbers rose during the first quarter of 2010, the number of available homes still remains quite a bit lower than last year at this time, as the chart below illustrates.

Accordingly, even though the supply of active listings is up noticeably since the beginning of the year, we still have quite a way to go before we approach last year’s supply.

So while the increase in available homes to choose from should be welcome news to eager home buyers — particularly those wanting to get into contract by the end of April to take advantage of the soon-to-expire federal tax credit — the reality is that most local home buyers in Solano County are still finding themselves in multiple offer situations due to the high demand.

We Still Track These Numbers Every Week

I continue to track these numbers every week. Though, this year I only publish them on a periodic basis — and usually when I notice a trend worth pointing out.

In 2009, I published the home inventory and home sale statistics on a weekly basis, but by year’s end I realized that there often wasn’t enough of a noticeable change on a week-to-week basis to warrant publishing them every week.

Nevertheless, if you’re ever interested in seeing the current week’s report in between the dates that I publish them on this blog, feel free to contact me for a current update. Or, if there’s a groundswell of interest in seeing these numbers every week, then I’ll start publishing them on a weekly basis again.

You can download this week’s Solano County Housing Report, which shows complete week-by-week active listings totals for each of the five cities in our market area, plus weekly pending and closed sales statistics for each city, too.

Please contact us for more information or details on these statistics. To see every home that’s presently available on our MLS in any city in Solano County, visit our Home Search page.

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Benicia-Vallejo Monthly Home Sale Report: Details On Every Closed Sale For Feb. 2010

Rod Herman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:45:04 +0000

Every month, I publish a complete list of every home that sold in both Benicia and Vallejo. So if you’re wondering what a particular home in your neighborhood sold for… or how much of a price change it took before a certain home finally sold, read on.

Here are a few highlights from February’s Benicia home sale report:

9 homes in Benicia sold for less than their asking price while 7 sold for more than the asking price.

10 of the 18 Benicia sales last month were regular “fair-market” sales. Five were REOs (bank-owned) and 3 were short sales.

The lowest sales price in Benicia was a Bay View Villas condo on Southampton Rd. that sold for $103,000 while the highest was a single family home on Townsend that closed at $571,500.

And a few highlights from Vallejo’s February home sale report:

65 of last month’s 116 sales (55%) were REOs. The other 45% were split almost equally between short sales (27) and regular sales (25).

44 homes sold for less than the original asking price, 9 were right at that initial list price and 63 sold for more than their starting price.

The biggest price change was for a home on Marshfield Rd. in Hiddenbrooke that started out at $1.28 million in early 2007 and finally closed last month at — are you ready for this — $460,000! That’s an eye-opening $820,000 difference between its original list price and its ultimate selling price.

Despite that Marshfield Rd. home’s massive price drop, at $460,000 it garnered top selling price honors for Vallejo last month. The least expensive home, meanwhile, was a condo on North Camino Alto that sold for $25,000.

To see the full report, with home-by-home totals for every Benicia & Vallejo home that closed escrow in Feb. 2010, click on either of the two buttons below.

To see the same report for previous months, click on the links below.

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

Rod Herman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:38:57 +0000

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%).

Along 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 in February was Suisun, where the median price rose 6% and the number of closed sales was up a whopping 33%.

The complete monthly statistics are in my February 2010 Monthly Home Sale Report for Solano County. Here are a few city-by-city highlights (or maybe “lowlights” is a better choice) from that report:

Benicia — The median sales price for February was $311,375, which is the lowest it’s been since last February. Its 18 closed sales were the fewest since last April.

Fairfield — February’s median price was $190,000, the lowest its been since September. Although there were 7 more closed sales than in January, it’s 115 closings in February is still the second lowest total over the past 112 months.

Suisun City — Suisun’s $196,500 median price is the second highest figure over the past 12 months. However, before you get too giddy over Suisun’s 33% jump in closed sales last month, consider that its 32 sales in February was the second lowest total over the past year. February’s increase only looks remarkable because January’s total was down so much (more than 50% from the previous month).

Vacaville — February’s median of $215,000 was the lowest its been since I started tracking these numbers in late 2008. The median price is down 17% from last February’s $258,000. Its 66 sales total was also the lowest over the past year.

Vallejo — The median ($150,000) was last this low in October. However, Vallejo’s median is still quite a bit higher than it was last spring, when it hovered between $125,000-$140,000. A year ago it was $135,000. The sales total of 116 is Vallejo’s low water mark over the past 12 months.

So all of this begs the question: Are we taking a step back?

Well, before you read too much into all of these numbers, remember that a one-month sample size is fairly small — particularly for cities like Benicia and Suisun, which have a relatively small inventory of homes for sale.

So a few random sales at one end of the spectrum can often artificially skew the numbers and provide a false illusion of what’s really happening in the market.

Right now, we’re still seeing multiple offers on most homes below $300,000. And though the inventory has bumped up a bit since the beginning of the year, it hasn’t increased enough to slow the demand.

Rather, with the home buyer tax credit set to expire at the end of next month, if anything, there seems to be even more urgency among those eligible for the credit to get into contract right away.

Be sure to download the full February Home Sale Report For Solano County, which includes monthly totals for February and comparisons with the past 12 months and Feb. ‘09.

Please contact us for additional information or visit our Home Search page to find homes currently on the market in any of the cities in our Solano and Central Contra Costa market area.

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