Solano Real Estate Scene: Perhaps it’s time to sell

Marc DeContreaus, the 2020 “Pandemic President” of the Northern Solano County Association of Realtors, told me recently that a few of the members are calling him this based on how challenging this year has been for so many of his members. He and all the hard-working full-time Realtors of the association have had to battle through the Covid-19 pandemic and resiliently adjust to all the required protocol to show, list and sell homes safely in 2020. Many of my friends in real estate support families and count on a stable market for all the hard work, nights and weekends to pay off. Now that cases are down, and re-opening is happening, the local market needs homes listed for sale. Marc shared with me that the number of homes actively available or coming soon for sale from $400,000 to $550,000 in Vacaville is 27; Fairfield, 23; Suisun City, four; Dixon, three; and Winters, a whopping one. Multiple offers are common these days, and he recently witnessed 12 offers come in on a 1,900-square-foot Vacaville home. There was one happy and lucky winner and 11 disappointed and qualified buyers. Marc and many of the Northern Solano County Association of Realtors veterans survived 2008 through 2012 but this pandemic came out of nowhere and disrupted a healthy economy. Home values rise when there are three or four times as many buyers as there are sellers, but this only happens when there is volume and plenty of comparable sales for appraisers to use to establish increasing values. Yes, buyers are offering over the appraised value and many are coming from the Bay Area with agents and lenders in tow, which, according to Marc, is creating other challenges such as weak, nonresponsive, out-of-area lenders who are busy doing massive numbers of refinances. Because of this, failed sales are up and more homes are coming back on the market than normal. The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is below 3% today, so if anyone was thinking of waiting for 2021 to list their home for sale, they may want to call a local Realtor to rethink that idea and sell today. Builders have experienced a bonanza in 2020 in our market as well as Woodland where our local real estate agents are driving up Interstate 505 with their buyers in search of the American Dream. New homes are selling faster than they can build them. If you are interested in a brand-new home, call a Northern Solano County Association of Realtors agent and they will show you and tell you about every builder and new home project within 40 to 50 miles of Fairfield.