Keep it Real in Sacramento

The trend is clear; we are not going to be seeing the normal buildup of inventory of homes in the Sacramento real estate market this year.  Normally starting in late February or early March the number of homes coming on the market is faster than sales so inventory of available homes increases until August.  Going into the spring, inventory was already high but instead of increasing it has actually declined.   As of June 9, according to HousingTracker, there were 14,670 homes on the market in the Sacramento area.  This level of inventory is down 4.2 percent in the past three months and down 11.5 percent from six months ago.  Again this is particularly noteworthy that the decline is happening during a time of year when we would expect to see inventory growing.

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I must have forgotten to knock on wood last week when I babbled on about For Sale Declines and being amazed that inventory of homes on the market in the Sacramento area were declining and prices were holding steady.  I just surfed over to HousingTracker to take a look at inventory and prices this week and was surprised again, for a different reason.

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Okay, make me officially amazed!  Inventory has not started growing like it normally does this time of year, it has actually declined.  According to our friends over at HousingTracker, the number of homes on the market in the Sacramento area has declined 2.9 percent in the past month and now stands at less than 15,000 for the first time since the low last spring of just over 13,000.   This trend if it continues could make for an interesting second half of the year.

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As you can imagine, I have listed a number of homes and visited thousands more, but not often do I see a home that is truly adorable.  The house I listed today falls into the adorable category!  The sellers are a young couple that took a subdivision model home with lots of upgrades to the next level.  It is one of those homes that you feel you could just move right in and enjoy.  As slow as this market is right now I think, if we can get some showings, this one will sell quickly.  Take a look at Cargill Way – Roseville  and let me know what you think. 

By the way, the last report from HousingTracker essentially showed inventory and median asking price flat from the previous week.  It is good that inventory is not going up but shows the increase in foreclosure activity is keeping it high.  Perhaps the drop in interest rate will flush out what some are calling “pent-up demand.”

Another week is slipping by and although I feel like I was busy, in the end I can’t say I accomplished as much as I had hoped.  For one I didn’t get a new column posted over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and I wanted to write another piece for MyForSaleSign.  What we did accomplish is getting the June Newsletter published, still in the final printing so if you are not on my mailing list and would like to be, let me know by email or filling out this short form.

During the week we have added another 350+ homes to the available inventory here in the Sacramento real estate market.   As I mentioned earlier in the week, there does not seem to be any reason we will not exceed the record high of homes on the market later this summer.   I continue to be surprised that asking prices continue to resist the kind of drops we saw last year as inventory was building.  Right now, according to HousingTracker we have 16,967 homes on the market with a stable median asking price of $399,000.  I have a great listing out in Natomas and we just lowered the price from $511,350 to $499,000 in hopes of increasing showing activity.  It is a great house on Beretania Way and if you or anyone you know is looking for a nice home, I would be happy to arrange a showing.

Speaking of showings, if you are out and about in the Yuba City area tomorrow, stop by and say hello.  I will be holding Randi’s condo/townhome open from 1 to 4 PM. 

Have a great Friday and weekend

Our great weather has plants and trees’ blooming like it is spring and according to HousingTracker inventory is growing like we are in the middle of the spring selling season.  For the week ending March 19, inventory was 13,773, up 313 available homes from the week before and up 4.5 percent in the past month.   Increases in inventory are historically traditional as we move into the spring selling season.  The level of inventory is higher than it was last year at this time and I attribute that to the nice weather compared to last year when we weren’t sure it would ever stop raining.  As we don’t follow the pattern of 2006 where we reached record levels of homes on the market in August when we had over 18,000 homes on the market I think we will see some stabilization in prices.  HousingTracker reported a slight tic down in the median asking price from $400,000 where it has been for the past four weeks to $399,000.

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Inventory in the greater Sacramento real estate market is edging up but we have been seeing some stability in the median asking price.  According to HousingTracker, during the past four weeks ending February 26 available houses for sale grew by 527 to 13,372, a 4.1 percent increase.  During this same time the median asking price has remained virtually constant at $400,000.

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