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Housing Inventory Down Throughout Solano County This Past Week

January 19th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Fairfield-Gr Valley, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Solano, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo

Weekly Housing Inventory Report

Surprisingly, at a time of year when you’d expect housing inventories to start rising again, throughout Solano County, every city in our market area saw a decline in active listings compared to the previous week.

That’s an about-face from last week’s report, when Benicia was the only city that saw a drop (and only by a single listing). This week, Suisun City saw its inventory drop by 12.5%, followed by Benicia (-5.7%), Fairfield-Green Valley (-2.8%), Vacaville (-1.6%) and Vallejo (-0.7%).

It’s possible this is just a one-week blip and that we’ll again see inventory increasing in the coming weeks, as normally happens after the first of the year. But the decrease in inventory could also be due to several market factors.

  • First off, there’s a double incentive of record-low interest rates and very low prices, which is bringing many new buyers into the marketplace. So new buyers are entering the marketplace much earlier in the year than normal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Another Sign Of The Times: Cost Plus World Market Closing Its Vallejo Store

January 13th, 2009 categories: The Economy, Vallejo

I stopped by Cost Plus in Vallejo this evening to pick up a few things and was surprised to find large Entire Inventory On Sale signs plastered all over the front windows of the Gateway Plaza store.

I wasn’t sure whether it was just first-of-the-year inventory time or the beginning of the end for yet another Vallejo retailer.  I hadn’t heard news of Cost Plus closing any stores, so when I got home a few hours ago, I decided to check out several local news web sites to see if I had missed something. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Solano County Weekly Active Listings Report For Jan. 12, 2009

January 12th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Market Update, Solano, Vallejo

Here’s this week’s Active Listings Report for Solano County. All the cities except Benicia have more listings this week than they did last week. Typically, the inventory nudges higher in January then really starts to climb beginning in about the second or third week in February, a trend that usually continues until about May.

I’ve added a new feature to the report this week — a column showing the percentage increase or decrease from a week ago. If you pull up the entire report, you’ll see that Suisun City had the largest increase in new terms of percentage (3.4% more homes than a week ago).

Here are city-by-city totals:

  • Benicia  105
  • Fairfield-Green Valley  719
  • Suisun City   240
  • Vacaville  425
  • Vallejo  899

For more details, including a breakdown by single-family homes/condos-townhomes and to see the weekly change totals, but in numbers and percentages, click here or on the graphic above to see the full report.

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Final ‘08 Solano Housing Stats: All But One City Had Far More Sales, However…

January 12th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Vallejo

It should come as no surprise that prices in Solano County were down in 2008. Nor that the number of sales county-wide increased (lower prices = greater affordability).

What was surprising though is that one Solano County city, Benicia, actually saw a decrease in both prices and sales volume — which was in marked contrast to its other Solano County neighbors. But when you look inside the numbers and realize what actually caused the spike in activity throughout the rest of Solano, you’ll see that Benicia should actually be quite pleased with its standing in the county.

I just ran the final 2008 residential sales statistics (click here or on the graphic below to see my complete report) and the stats show that countywide, prices in 2008 were down 36% from 2007 ($417,000 median sales price in ‘07 and $265,000 in ‘08). Sales activity, however, skyrocketed, with almost twice as many sales last year (4,899) than the year before (2,745) — a 178% increase.

In fact, Vallejo (1,473) and Fairfield/Green Valley (1,407) together combined for more sales in 2008 (2,880) than the entire county had in 2007. Those two cities saw their sales climb 227% and 219% respectively.

But the overall leader in terms of percentage, was Suisun City, with 239% more sales in 2008 than the year before. Of course, its median price, which dropped from $400,000 in ‘07 to $232,000 in ‘08, certainly played a huge part in attracting more buyers. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Antioch, Pittsburg & Vallejo 1-2-3 In Percentage Of Active Distress Sale Listings

January 9th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Contra Costa, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Market Update, Solano, Vallejo

For those communities that had the highest number of distress-sale listings last Fall, the news hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, it’s gotten slightly worse in places like Antioch, Pittsburg and Vallejo, where today nine out of every 10 listings are either a short sale or bank-owned.

Those three cities rank 1-2-3 in our market area, with distress properties accounting for 94%, 93% and 90% of their total listing inventory, respectively.

By comparison, the last time I prepared this report, back in late October, Antioch and Pittsburg each had 91% and Vallejo, 86%.

The news wasn’t much better for those right behind the Big Three: Suisun City, Oakley, Fairfield, and Concord, clocked in with 89%, 85%, 80% and 79%, respectively. Only Fairfield saw a decrease (albeit by a single percentage point). The other three cities all saw their percentages go up, including Concord, which jumped from from 72% in October to 79% today. Right behind Concord is Brentwood, at 77% (up from 76% in October). Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

How Did Your Community Fare In December?

January 8th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Vallejo

Solano County Home Sales Data For December

I just downloaded the data and the numbers are in for Solano County homes sales in December. There were a total of 556 sales county-wide, led in descending order by Vallejo (195), Fairfield/Green Valley (166), Vacaville (87), Suisun City (48) and Benicia (24).

The lowest selling price in the county was in Vallejo ($27,000) and the highest was in Vacaville (an even $1 million). The quickest sales were in Suisun City (average of 82 days on the market) and the slowest were in Vallejo (117 days). However, Vallejo had the most pending sales for the month (249), which was almost half of the entire county’s total (650).

Benicia, as usual, had the highest median sales price in the county, at $383,500 — more than $100,000 higher than the city with the next highest median price (Vacaville at $270,000. Vallejo had the lowest, with a median sales price of $160,000. The county-wide median was  $206,375 in December.

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Want To Stay Current On How Many Homes Are On The Market In Most of Solano County?

January 7th, 2009 categories: Benicia, Buying, Market Update, Selling, Solano, Vallejo

A new year means new additions and new traditions. So starting today, I’ll be tracking the number of homes on the market in the Solano County communities we serve on a weekly basis. Keeping track of the inventory every week is something I usually do for Benicia, but now I’m going to start doing it for Vallejo, Fairfield-Green Valley, Suisun and Vacaville, too. And I plan to post the numbers on this blog every week.

Today, the list is only one line long. But if you subscribe to this Blog or keep checking back regularly, as the weeks progress, you’ll see an ever-evolving incredibly useful window into what’s really happening in the market.

As the year begins, here is the housing inventory for Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: No Comments »

Why Savvy Real Estate Investors Are Now Licking Their Chops…Especially In Places Like Antioch, Fairfield and Vallejo

September 5th, 2008 categories: Buying, Contra Costa, Foreclosures / Short Sales, Investors, Market Update, Solano, Vallejo

Four or five years ago, when prices were skyrocketing month after month, buyers often lamented about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

These Antioch homes are all more than 2,200 sq. ft. and below $300,000

These Antioch homes are all more than 2,200 sq. ft. and below $300,000

I’d pull up a property’s history and when they saw that the home they were about to pay $600,000 for had been purchased a dozen years earlier for $210,000, they’d say “if I’d only bought several homes back then when I had the chance.”

The ‘good ‘ol days, were long gone, with prices outpacing rents by such a long shot that any savvy real estate investor didn’t even have to crunch the numbers. Unless they were in it for a quick flip, they knew that the numbers didn’t come close to penciling out when a $550,000 home would only rent for $1,500/month. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Rod Herman | Discussion: 1 Comment »