Keep it Real in Sacramento

Christmas is past and we are wrapping up 2007.  I thought this holiday season might be slow with some time to catch up on some of those things you always put off, but that was not the case.  Of course some of my “busy” has been related to starting MagnumOne Realty but I do have a new listing that I am excited about.  It is in the Barrett Ranch area of Antelope which is so new that the streets of this subdivision are not shown on the major map sites or my car GPS system. 

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Although we finally have started to see plateau and even slight decreases in the inventory of homes for sale in the Sacrament area the median asking price is falling faster than the number of homes.  The number of homes for sale has decreased by about 100 in the past month and stood at 18,394 according to HousingTracker.  This is a decrease of 444 homes from the inventory level at the beginning of the month.  During this same time we have seen the median asking price fall from $375,000 to $364,500 or 2.8 percent. 

The laws of supply and demand would dictate as we start to see inventory decline we should see a strengthening or increase in price.  In this “new market” where we are working our way through the foreclosures and mortgage loan crisis all bets are off.  Long term, the affordability and desirability of the Sacramento area will bring the real estate market back into equilibrium but for the rest of this year and the for most of next year the going will be rough on sellers.

Speaking of sellers, I do have some nice listings right now, check out my two listings in Rocklin, Willard Way and Tanus Circle. 

Our summer days seem to be passing by a bit faster than I wanted and there have not been many, if any, “lazy days” yet.  The real estate activity reports for June were negative, with most parts of the Sacramento  area market showing fewer sales than last year, growing inventory and continued downward pressure on asking prices. 

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  I added a new listing this week and it is a great home with a short sale possibility.  This home was purchased a few years ago at the top of the market, the owners then added a number of wonderful  upgrades and improvements but now that they have moved from the area are, like many owners who bought in 2005, owe more on the house than the current market can support. 

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Looking a bit closer at the recent SacBee story, “Home sales seek bottom” we see that Placer County real estate may be looking harder for the bottom than some of the other local areas that make up the greater Sacramento real estate market.  The median sales price for existing homes sold in May dropped $10,750 from April to $437,750.  This is off 9.6 percent from a year ago.  This is the largest one year price decline in the four major counties, Placer, Sacramento, El Dorado and Yolo.  The good news in Placer County is sales volume. Including condos there were 512 closed escrows in May.  This is up sharply from 378 in April and is on par with May 2006 when there was 516 closed escrows. 

Hopefully we will continue to see buyers out looking, especially in Rocklin where I have a new listing.  Check out this great 4 bedroom, 3 bath home off of 3^rd Street on Willard Way.  It is a great home, with loads of extras and ready for a new family.  With almost 1,900 square feet of living area you won’t find anything this nice priced below $200 per square foot.