Solano Real Estate Scene: Supply and demand

We were experiencing a housing inventory shortage in Northern California prior to the fires in Napa and Santa Rosa. Our buyers, lenders and Realtors are frustrated with our inventory shortage in Solano County. I can’t imagine what it is like for the real estate professionals in Sonoma County. My mom and dad rent a house in Oakmont Village in Santa Rosa, and 30 days ago they received a 60-day notice to move. Yikes, my brothers and sisters have been trying to help them find another rental and we have also been looking at buying something for them but there are zero rentals out of 3,300 dwelling units in this senior over 55 community and there are only two houses available to purchase for less than $600,000. They would like to stay in Oakmont because my mom plays bridge twice a week at the Oakmont Community Center and have developed some friendships since moving there in 2010 after selling their two-story home in Coffee Park, which burned to the ground in October coincidentally. We obviously should have purchased a home in 2010 but this was only two years after the crash and my parents along with all five of us kids weren’t feeling wealthy at the time and Oakmont had practically no foreclosures so there weren’t very many affordable houses to buy at the time. The moral of this story is owning a house is better than having a landlord that can make you move. My folks are 80 and 87 and are now victims of one of the biggest housing shortages in California since World War II. Selling and renting for a while can be hazardous to your financial health. Be an owner not a loaner.