Sacramento Real Estate Views

Sacramento Real Estate: Average Sales Price Increases?

So Far in February, The Average Sales Price Has Gone Up

I didn’t believe this when I saw it and maybe it’s a short term trend as we haven’t finished the month but a preliminary check of the average sales price in Sacramento County thus far for the month of February increased 6.95% over January for almost exactly the same home.

While I’m not going to read too much into this but that said, my team leader, Ian Maker, told me yesterday that prices were going up.  Needless to say, I checked his coffee mug for some sign of Vodka but none was present and he was speaking coherently.  Being the doubting Robert that I tend to be, I checked it for myself and sure enough, Ian was right, again.(sometimes I hate that guy! )

On the REO Deal Makers team, we do an extraordinary amount of BPO’s (broker price opinions) for the accounts we service.  Ian mentioned that in the process of completing the latest round of BPO’s, our team noticed an increase in prices across the board.

NAH! Can’t be!  All the experts say that we’ll be losing 12% more this year and won’t bottom out until the 4th quarter of 2009.

Why The Increase You Ask?

It’s only half way through the month and knowing that, I took a quick price check of what the average sales price was at the same point last month.  It was lower than how the month ended.  On January 15th, the average sales price for the month was $185,392 while on the 31st it had climbed to $189,273, a 2.1% increase.

It can be said that the average sales price has increased every two weeks this year so far.

I reported on the 4th of February that the inventory levels had decreased from January to February by 2.25% in large part due to the foreclosure moratoriums and the fact that the banks are sitting on a lot of empty homes in our area.  Simple supply and demand economics state that where the supply dwindles, the demand incresaes and prices go up.  It appears, at least on the surface, whether permanently or temporarily, this is what has happened.

The Single Largest January Sales Numbers on Record

I mentioned in a previous post that the region experienced the largest January sales in the history of the region with 1496 sales for the month.  I was wrong.  We actually had 1536 sales and that was only what was reported in the MLS.  There were probably more than that if you look at bulk sales and other sales not involving a Realtor.

The Jury Is Still Out

And will be out for some time.  Having said that, the numbers don’t lie.  They are what they are.  We’ll see what the report looks like at the end of the month.  Trend?  Way to early to tell.

What about all those empty homes sitting out there not on the market?  That, my friends, is a topic for another post.

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Tags: sacramento real estate

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Home Sales Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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