Foreclosure Crisis may lead to Necessary Changes

With so many homes being lost all over the country, it is time there are some changed made in the real estate industry, especially regarding lending.

A few good things proposed that might become a reality in the future:

1. Lenders will require proof of income if the borrower's credit isn't good. Also money for taxes and insurance will need to be set aside.

2. Prepayment penalties are banned if the payment changes in the first four years. (I would like to see prepayment penalties go away completely. It is a ridiculous clause anyway.)

3. The borrower must be able to repay the home loan based on house's value alone. This one is a little confusing to me because it seems like this condition is already present, which is why we have appraisals. No one can guarantee the future value of a home, and it seems that's the desire here.

We seem to be moving in the right direction - just very, very slowly.

Sacramento Condo Market

105 condos sold in the month of June in Sacramento county, down from May; prices fell from May's high of $153,000 to $135,000 in June.

Active inventory was down slightly to 565 from last month's 622. 130 condos went pending, again not as good as June.

I guess May was the month for condos and June was the month for single family residences!

Have a good weekend!

Sacramento Market Update for June: Single Family Residences

I guess I stand corrected: it isn't exciting out there this month in real estate. Which makes it perfect for all you home buyers out there, but this market update doesn't promise to change anything. :(

Median price fell to $220,000 from May's $230,000. Days on market stayed pretty much the same at 50. 1866 single family residences sold in the month of June and 2074 homes went pending.

1241 more homes came on the market in the month of June. We have a total of 8157 homes for sale. Inventory is lower than May at 4.6 months.

The silver lining you've come to expect? Sales were up 17% month to month over May!

Saturday: condo market.

Sacramento Area Real Estate Market Updates Coming!

Watch for them beginning tomorrow. I have a feeling they should be exciting. Usually by the time everyone is bored with real estate is the time they get pretty interesting - not scared, just bored, which seems to be the mood of Sacramento real estate.

So come back tomorrow. We have single family residences, condos and maybe even some other area-specific updates!

More Good News... Potentially

The Sacramento Bee in its real estate section recently reported that San Francisco's real estate market has posted a rebound. While the article talks mainly about the commercial market, its effects on the residential market have been touched upon as well.

How can this be good news for Sacramento?

Remember the real real estate boom? Not the one fueled by ARMs, but the one where homebuyers were people moving into Sacramento from the Bay Area as well as Southern California because prices there were just too high for anyone to be able to buy a home? It seems like Sacramento might get to enjoy that same reputation again soon - it is one of the most afforadable places in California, and especially so today.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Home Buyers like Condos: Market Update May

As opposed to last month, the median price of a condo in Sacramento county jumped 12.6% to reach $153,000 in May.

114 condos sold, an improvement over last month's 100 and 150 condos went into escrow in May - better sales all around and better prices to go with them!

136 new condo listings came on the market, lower than last month's 154.

Want more good news? Okay. There are 622 condos for sale in Sacramento county, which brings inventory down further than last month, to sit at 5.45 months.

Sacramento Market Update: Single Family Homes in May

Days on market fell for the first time in months! We are down to 54 days on market for the average house sold in Sacramento county. Median price has remained fairly stable - down slightly from last month's $235,000. April was at $230,000.

1594 homes sold in the month of May and 1995 new listings came on the market. The real surprise? 3621 homes went pending sale in the month of May - that is almost twice the amount of homes than went pending in April!

There are currently 8135 houses on the active market, inventory sits at 5.1 months.

Tomorrow: condo market.

Sacramento Condos for March: the Numbers

Condos seem to be getting a bad rap lately. I don't know if it's just me, but I see investors - who were very interested in condos for a while - seem to back away from them. I guess given the choice between having a backyard you can call your very own and paying condo fees, people choose the former.

Anyway, let's get right to the numbers. The median price for condos didn't fare as well as the median price for single family residences. It dropped 24.6% from February to stop at $138,500.

Sales were up however. Sacramento county saw 90 condos sell in March, an increase of 52.5% over February. Pending sales were higher as well - 130 over last month's 116.

202 condos came on the market as new listings in March, bringing inventory down to 7.8 months, an improvement over last month's 11.9

Also read: February's numbers; January's numbers.

Market Statistics for Single Family Residences for March

Good news, everyone.

We have bounced off the bottom, even if it be ever so slightly. Here are the details on Sacramento county's real estate market recovery in March, 2008.

Median price remains steady (or almost steady) at $254,000. It has hovered around $255,000 since January.

2332 new listings were added to the market and 1006 sold. Existing inventory now stands at 8632, smaller again than January or February's. We now have 8.5 months of inventory on the market, a change of 15.84% over February and of 28.6% over January!

More good news - 2021 homes went in escrow in the month of March, a whopping 37% higher than pending sales in February, which were already higher than January, which were higher than... well, you get the idea.

So... median prices have steadied, inventory is down and sales are up! The Sacramento real estate market recovery has begun.

Also read: January's numbers; February's numbers and come back tomorrow for updates on the Sacramento condo market.

Sacramento Market Heating Up!

I know, I've been going on about this lately, but I just want everyone to know. I've been manning the calls at Elite Properties lately and we're getting a lot of them. These are - by the way - interested real estate buyers, first-timers, investors, you name it - and not the tire-kickers we've been used to seeing in the last few months. (With apologies to all the serious buyers, I don't mean you. Obviously.)

Anecdotally, I went out to write an offer for a client I've been working with forever now. She's been looking in the Anatolia area of Rancho Cordova and was stuck on the waiting side of a short sale for a while now. Well, when that period finally ended, she decided to go after REOs and new homes. This is what has happened so far:
REOs: multiple offers
New Homes: multiple offers

So anyway, to get back to the story, I went out to Anatolia to write an offer. Since it's a new builder, I had to do it at the sales office. Can you believe the house had three offers and it sold (with a counteroffer) twenty minutes before I got there?

Now this is the kind of the market I remember!

Take my word for it, buyers - you wait too long, you're going to miss the deals. The asking price on short sales means nothing if you don't ever hear back from the banks.

REOs, Real Estate Statistics and the Pricing Paradox

The investors are finally jumping in. They are actively searching properties and buying up Sacramento's real estate. February pending sales are up.

And whether while this activity signals the very beginning of the end of the bad market is debatable, there is a bigger paradox that buyers should watch for and it is this - some REOs are still pretty hot properties which get picked up immediately for far higher than the asking price. Thus even though the listing price seems like a steal, the selling price shows prices stabilizing, even amongst certain low-priced homes.

Where are these properties? Really, they are all over Sacramento county - Natomas, El Dorado Hills, even Foothill Farms and Fair Oaks. I have seen some REOs disappear in a matter of a week or two, even two to three days. These REOs have some features in common: they are usually newer, priced toward the lower end of the range in a mile radius, and don't require much work to be considered livable. Mainly, they look like such a "deal" to buyers that some are paying a premium to buy them - offering many thousands over asking price and putting down hefty deposits.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months in terms of statistics for Sacramento county. But one thing is for sure: there is still pent up demand for homes which is not showing up in pendings or sales. Every day, of the 40 - 50 unique visitors this blog sees, about 20% are searching for some form of these terms: "Sacramento real estate market statistics;" "Sacramento time to buy a home?" "Market update Sacramento real estate;" and so on.

Maybe it's time to quit waiting and start looking. The good ones really do go fast.

How in the World did I Miss This?

I've said it before. And now the Sacramento Bee says it too.

Maybe the next time you'll listen. :)

Sacramento Real Estate Statistics for February: Single Family Market

Yesterday I wrote about how pending sales are higher all over the country and the National Association of Realtors expects a housing recovery beginning in sometime late 2008. Nice to know some of the statistics from Sacramento county tell the same story.

The latest numbers from the Metrolist MLS for the month of February:

The median price has steadied, it seems, at least for this month - $255,000 it remains, the same as January's median price.

2155 new listings were added to the market and 864 sold, pushing existing inventory to 8749, a smaller number than January's 9042 actives. This brings existing home inventory to about 10.1 months, down from last month's 11.9.

Here's another caveat, however. Pending sales were higher again - a total of 1474 houses went into contract in February - 21% more than January's pending sales, which were already higher than December's. I hear rumbling underneath the surface! If all these pending sales go through inventory numbers could look very different next month!

Also read: January's numbers; December's numbers, and November's numbers for Sacramento real estate.

Reads and Feeds

A few great articles came up on my radar in the past few weeks, so of course I want to share them! Enjoy!

This one has got to be my favorite by far. Someday, I will learn to great and brief and say so much by saying so little, just like Seth Godin.

Bankrate.com came up with this one today - one of the more balanced articles I've seem about the truth of the real estate market and if you should worry.

And finally, you may have more in common with Fred Flintstone than you think!

Does Median Income Have Anything to do with Median Home Values?

Okay, I'm really sick and tired of this argument. You know how it goes: "Median income has not kept up with median home values in Sacramento, this home prices must fall until everyone in Sacramento can afford to pay a third of their monthly budget toward their mortgage." It's a seemingly innocent calculation and very easy to remember; so simple in fact that it gets quoted again and again and unfortunately believed.

Here is a list of areas where median incomes do not - by a long shot - keep pace with median home values. Interesting, huh?

Here are a few reasons that calculation, pat and easy as it is to parrot, does not work:
1. Not everyone can afford a home. Some people rent. Sometimes all their lives.
2. Some people buy more than one house and rent it to others. They are called real estate investors and landlords.

On an individual level (and for budgeting and loan purposes) it helps to use the 30% rule. But as a large group and especially when relating to medians, that formula falls apart. To push every individual and situation into a formula is ridiculous.

The next time you come across pat formulas like these, question their basis and their source.

Sacramento Real Estate Statistics: Condo Market

Yesterday, I posted Sacramento county's single family residence statistics. Here are the latest numbers for January 2008 for condos:

There seems to be a certain amount of agreement with the number of pending sales in both single family homes and condos - both have gone up. And it's not just personal experience any more that we're seeing more people wanting to buy homes for themselves and investment purposes now that prices have fallen so low. I hear this phrase again and again: "I don't want to miss out on this market!"

So, about the condos:

We have 733 on the market currently. Going by January's sold numbers, that's 18.7 months of inventory. But wait... a whopping 93 went pending sale in January 2008. Since condos are cheaper than single family residences, investors are looking toward them for purchase a lot more.

195 new listings for condos came on the Sacramento market in January 2008.

Median price has now fallen to $143,000.

Follow the trends: December's numbers for Sacramento county condos; November's numbers for Sacramento county condos; Sacramento real estate market statistics for October.

Want to know what your house is worth? Click here for a free market analysis!

Sacramento County Statistics January 2008

Here are the latest numbers on single family residences from the Metrolist MLS:

January was a slow month in terms of sales and disappointing as the median price dropped another 9.4% over December's median sale price to $255,000.

2523 units came on the market as new listings in January in Sacramento county now bringing single home inventory to 9042, about 11.9 months of unsold homes.

The silver lining? 1209 homes went pending in January 2008, 16.8% higher than December's numbers. Perhaps this fall in homes has inspired many to head out - first time buyers and investors alike.

Check the trends: December's numbers for Sacramento real estate; November's Sacramento real estate statistics; October's numbers.

Also read: Population Projections for Sacramento; Statistics and How to Read Them

Tomorrow, I'll have statistics for Sacramento condos. Be sure to check back!

Sacramento County Condo Market Update

In November 2007 Sacramento condos gave a few of us hope. In December though, prices have fallen again, although sales and pending numbers remain the same. I guess it's really what you choose to focus on.

Anyway, here are the numbers:

Total condos sold: 57

Total condos in escrow in December: 61

145 more condos came on the Sacramento county market in December.

There are a total of 755 condos still on the market.

Median price fell to $185,000 from last month's high of $228,700 - a drop of 19%

Please note these numbers have not been seasonally adjusted. Some month to month change occurs regardless of the market, influenced by conditions like the weather, holidays and so on.

Real Estate December 2007 Statistics are Here!

I don't remember who said it, but the quote is worth repeating: "Statistics are just a bunch of numbers looking for an argument." Well, here's the latest real estate squabble update.

December was not a month to brag about, but showed almost the same numbers as November, which you may recall was a little better than October in terms of pending sales. However, the pendings and solds do not match up as well as I'd like, which seems to suggest buyers out there changing their minds during escrow or just longer escrows, as is the case with short sales.

1763 single family residences came on the market in December.

805 units were sold.

1035 were pending, suggesting that buyers are out there looking.

Median price has fallen to $281,500.

Also read: November's statistics.

Is the Real Estate Market Recovering?

You know the saying: by the time the cab driver tells you that the real estate market is really, really bad, it may be getting better.

And now that the bad news is all over the place, here comes some good news: Sacramento condos have posted some great numbers this month - an 11% increase in sale prices and a 33% increase in sales.

And while we're on the subject of bad news/good news, read this excellent article (funny, too) on Sacramento Home about my favorite publication.