What a fantastic evening for the Fairfield fireworks last night!

After attending a picnic with some fine company and delicious dining, my husband and I visited more friends on the beach for the remainder of the evening. Low tide provided extra space on the sand bars this year for added festivities and some pre-show fireworks. As the warm pastel sunlight faded to dusk, the bejeweled horizon of sparkling lights from boats and waterfront homes became the new feature.

Once darkness fell, the DJ from the party next door created the perfect moment when he sang his own blues-inspired rendition of America the Beautiful just as the spectacular fireworks display was launched from the barge off Jennings Beach. Ah, there’s nothing like the Fourth of July in Fairfield!

Of course we’re all back to work now, so let me provide an update on the housing market for you – As of today, we have 491 single-family homes and 85 condos for sale in Fairfield, down from the count in my last post on June 22. However, there has been a jump since then in the number of binders and contracts, which is a positive sign.

One of the metrics I like to watch as a leading indicator of what’s to come is the percentage of active listings with a binder. A little over a week ago, 10% of the homes for sale had an accepted offer. At the time of this post, there are 70 homes with a binder equating to 14% of the available homes. Considering that the ratio had been 12-13% this spring in March through May, this is quite encouraging! The number of contracts is currently 133, also up from 105 a little more than a week ago.

Three more homes have sold since I last wrote, ranging in price from $450,000 to $875,000. The tally of sold homes in June recorded as of today is 23, with an average sale price of $600,000. Although there are sure to be more June sales recorded in the next few weeks, we are still quite far off from the single-family sales in June 2010 which totaled 71 with an average sale price of $658,000.

Okay, so who is ready to jump into the market to buy and sell, and catapult our numbers for July?!