CREDIT SCORES ARE INCREASINGLY BEING USED by numerous industries to evaluate risk. A damaged credit score can result in higher insurance premiums and increased borrowing costs — and it can even cost you that opportunity for your dream job. In real estate finance, your credit score can save you thousands of dollars over the life […]
Benicia Biz Beat: Former Benician still selling fudge
JAN PRUITT, WHO FOR 11 YEARS sold her varieties of fudge at Benicia Certified Farmers Market, still is selling the confection. Pruitt, who lived in Benicia for 25 years, moved in 2012 to Spartansburg, S.C., for her and her husband’s health. She sells at that city’s farmers market on Saturdays. “I was the only one […]
Making $ense of Real Estate: Solano — a good place to buy, and sell, a home
The June home sales report of the California Association of Realtors was released last week and home sales in California — and particularly in Solano County — continue to sizzle. June marked the first double-digit improvement in the number of single-family homes sold since May 2012. Statewide, the number of homes sold topped 400,000 for the […]
Benicia Biz Beat: Six Flags to silence coaster ‘Roar’
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, 1001 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo, has announced it will close its iconic wooden roller coaster, Roar, on Aug. 16. Guests can ride Roar for the last time from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day, after which it will be closed permanently, said Don McCoy, park president. “We are a dynamic and […]
Making $ense of Real Estate: A ‘normal’ market
I THINK IT HAS BEEN SO LONG since we had a “normal” real estate market that most of us in the industry don’t even know what normal is anymore. At the beginning of the millennium, the housing industry was in hyper growth mode fueled by crazy underwriting standards that pumped millions of buyers into the […]
Making $ense of Real Estate: Greece on fire
AFTER YEARS OF SPECULATION that Greece could default on their national debt, it has finally happened — and to the surprise of some the world has not ended, at least not yet. As I write this column on Monday for a Thursday publication, emergency meetings are ongoing to try to stave off the collapse of […]
Biz energy program benefits recognized
Western City, the monthly magazine of the League of California Cities, has acknowledged the accomplishments of Benicia’s Business Resource Incentive Program (BRIP) in helping Industrial Park companies operate more sustainably. The magazine noted in its July issue that the Industrial Park, the largest development of its type in Solano County covering more than 3,000 acres, […]
Benicia Biz Beat: Affordable Quality Cabinets marks 25th anniversary
ALLAN LEMONE CELEBRATED HIS FIRST 25 YEARS IN BUSINESS July 1 at Affordable Quality Cabinets, 4852 East Second St. Lemone began working out of his home in 1990. Later, he began renting First Street window-front space to display his cabinetry, first at what is now Adobe’s resale store and later at what is now Buon […]
Making $ense of Real Estate: Stopping fraud
INTERTHINX, A LEADING PROVIDER of risk-prevention services for the mortgage industry, released its annual Mortgage Fraud Risk Report last week and the results for 2014 show that mortgage fraud is generally declining in most markets. Florida jumped ahead of California as the number one state for mortgage fraud. The indices used in the report are […]
Benicia Biz Beat: Save Mart extends Sonoma sponsorship
SAVE MART SUPERMARKETS has signed a multiple-year agreement that extends its co-sponsorship of the annual NASCAR Sprint Cup series race at Sonoma Raceway, track President Steve Page and Save Mart Co-president Nicole Pesco announced. The company, which has 16,000 employees, operates 217 stores under the brands Save Mart, Lucky, FoodMaxx, S-Mart Foods and Maxx Value […]