Palo Alto's recent decision to refinance decade-old downtown-parking bonds and to offer new bonds to residents has saved the city more than $7.5 million, city officials said in a statement.

The bond sale, which the city launched Feb. 22, was part of the city's new marketing program to sell bonds directly to Palo Alto residents. According to Joe Saccio, assistant director of the Administrative Services Department, the bonds sold out within four hours, with residents buying $6.1 million (or 20 percent) of the bonds and institutional investors buying the rest.

This was the first time residents were given first priority for buying bonds.

Saccio said the city saw "a tremendous amount of interest" in the bond offering from residents and institutions. The city's website for the bond offering received more than 750 hits and the bond underwriter, De La Rosa & Company, received more than 150 calls from interested residents, he said.

The city received $141 million in orders for the $31.1 million in bonds, a demand that city officials say "demonstrates extraordinary confidence by investors in the City of Palo Alto."

The city estimates that the bond offering will save downtown property owners in the University Avenue Area Off-Street Parking Assessment District about $413,000 a year, or $7.5 million over the remaining 18 years of the bond.