A decade after Vallejo, Calif. entered bankruptcy, the city appears to have turned a corner, according to an analysis by Bond Buyer. “Vallejo has done a ground-up restructuring,” said Karol Denniston, a partner with Squire Patton Boggs LLP. “They are now routinely one of the top 10 cities where people want to live, which is a huge turn-around from when they entered bankruptcy.” Scars still remain from the chapter 9 bankruptcy process. And many of the city's markers of success in 2018, as with the troubles that drove the city into bankruptcy court in 2008, stem from economic factors beyond its control. Credit partly goes to the exorbitant real estate prices in San Francisco, where the median house sells for $1 million. “We are benefiting from the fact that people would rather spend an hour riding the ferry to San Francisco then sitting in their car commuting,” said James Cooper, president and chief executive officer of the Vallejo Chamber of Commerce. Prices have also jumped in communities like Oakland that once offered affordable alternatives, pushing buyers further out.
