Home sales drop, but real estate not in free fall
The real estate picture in Vallejo and the rest of Solano County may be slightly worse than statewide, but by no means is it in free fall, a local real estate expert said Friday.
A recent report by the California Association of Realtors shows that despite an expanding economy, home sales decreased nearly 25 percent statewide in
June 2007 over June 2006. The median price of a home sold rose by just over 3 percent in the same period, the report showed.
The picture was worse on both counts in Vallejo, Benicia and Solano County generally, said Solano Association of Realtors president Jeff Dennis.
In the first five months of 2007, the number of transactions plunged more than 43 percent in Vallejo and about 20 percent in Benicia, Dennis said. The numbers for May 2006 over May 2007 were even worse, he added.
“There were 202 transactions in Vallejo in May, 2006 and only 93 this May,” Dennis said. “That’s down more than 60 percent.”
In Benicia there was a drop of about half that, from 41 transactions in 2006 to 27 this year, he added.
And unlike the rest of the state, sales prices locally have also dropped, though only slightly, Dennis said. Countywide, home sales are down over last year nearly 30 percent and the average sale price dropped by about 4 percent, he said. In Vallejo, average prices are down this year less than 3 percent, to $438,000 from $450,000. Benicia’s dropped just over 1 percent from $548,000 to $542,000, Dennis said.