FAIRFIELD — Solano County’s real estate market is bouncing back, but the number of homes for sale remains low.
After a dizzying sales-price drop in 2008, followed by a plateau that lasted until mid-2012, the median price for a home in the county has been on a steady upswing over the past year.
June marked the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year increases with a median sales price in Solano County of $262,000, according to San Diego-based real estate service DataQuick. That was a rise from the median-price nadir of $172,000 in February 2012.
The increase comes in a tight market. The number of homes for sale remains at such a low level that bidding wars continue and there are several prospective buyers for every house on the market. For instance, just 544 homes were sold in June and just 629 in May – both significant drops from the same months in 2012.
But that may change as the median sales price goes up.
“The inventory is going up a little,” said Kathleen Ramos, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Kappel Gateway in Vacaville. “We’re now seeing more owner-occupied homes go on the market.”
Ramos said a “balanced market,” one that’s neither a buyer’s market nor a seller’s market, could come within the next several months. That will mean more stable prices and fewer bidding wars.
“I think in six to eight months, it will be more balanced,” she said. “Vacaville will likely reach that point prior to Fairfield-Suisun. And Vallejo is further behind.”
Jim Stever, a longtime Realtor in Fairfield, thinks it might take a little longer.
“Where are the new homes going to come from?” he asked. “A lot of homes are still underwater. It took us two-and-a-half years to get where we are, so we’re not gong to suddenly have 300 homes on the market. It’s a long, slow process.”
And with rising prices, it’s tough for the first-time homebuyer to break through.
According to the California Association of Realtors, 67 percent of Solano residents would qualify for a loan to purchase a median-priced home in the first quarter of this year. That was down from 77 percent who qualified a year ago and from 73 percent in the previous quarter.
Solano County’s trends are similar to the rest of the Bay Area. According to DataQuick, the median price in the Bay Area for June $555,000, an increase of 33.1 percent over June 2012, which is the biggest year-to-year increase since DataQuick began keeping statistics in the 1980s. But, like in Solano, the number of sales in the region decreased 9.4 percent compared to 2012. That was consistent with the previous months.
Reach Brad Stanhope at 427-6958 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bradstanhope.
