FAIRFIELD — Home values are steadily on the rise in Solano County, finally climbing to the point of where they were at just prior to the 2008 economic crash.
That is a glass-half-full and glass-half-empty debate, as many in the industry can only speculate what those values might have been had there never been a Great Recession.
It is also, one Realtor argued, spilt milk.
The bigger issue for the industry is the lack of inventory to sell, and the growing concern that fewer and fewer Californians – and Solano County residents specifically – can afford to purchase the generally higher-priced homes that are on the market.
According to the second quarter Housing Affordability Report released Aug. 9 by the California Association of Realtors, only 29 percent of California households could afford to purchase the median-priced home at $553,260. That is down from the 32 percent reported in the first-quarter of 2017 and down from the 31 percent in the second-quarter of 2016.
“A minimum annual income of $110,890 was needed to make monthly payments of $2,770, including principal, interest and taxes on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a 4.09 percent interest rate,” the report states.
The median price for homes in Solano County, according to June data from the California Association of Realtors, was $420,000, up 1.2 percent from May and up 7.7 percent from June 2016.
While home sales are up 6.3 percent from May to June, sales are down nearly 2 percent going back to June 2016, the association reported.
The Realtors group also reports that on a year-to-year basis, it is taking longer to sell the homes that are on the market.
The median income for Solano County in 2016, according to ZeroDownCalifornia.com, was $77,609. The state reports a similar figure for median family income, but lists the median household income at slightly less.
Take either number and there is a growing concern that the market is more favorable to residents of other Bay Area counties trying to find less expensive housing and looking at Solano, than it is for existing Solano residents.
Similar concerns have been raised over sharply increasing rental prices – also strongly influenced by the lack of units available.
