Sacramento Real Estate Views

Sacramento Average Sales Price Increases

Sales Prices Increase for the Third Straight Month

For the third straight month, the Sacramento real estate market is showing signs of stabilization, even if artificially.  Sales of existing homes has increased, average sales prices have increased as well and the inventory of homes for sale has decreased.  However there is one lingering question:

What will become of those homes that have been foreclosed on but are not on the market?

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, only 30% of recently foreclosed homes have been listed for sale.  RealtyTrac.com estimates that there are 80,000 homes in California alone that are sitting there, vacant and not on the open market for sale.  This has created an “artificial” stabilizing of the Sacramento real estate market.

Why?

There could be several reasons why they “shadow inventory” is out there.  It could be for accounting reasons, waiting to find out what Washington will do to bail out the troubled assets or controlling the inventory prevent further price deterioration.

I know that releasing all of these homes on the market at once, as I’ve been saying since last October, will create a glut of inventory that will crush values in our region.  With prices going up, why not let them sit there, control the inventory and drive prices up?  This would be one of the best financial decisions the banks have made in this mess.

Freddie & Fannie

I’ve heard recently from several sources that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will begin releasing some of their inventory to the market very soon.  A few listing agents that I know have said they have been told that there will be more homes coming to them.  Beyond that, what will happen to that inventory is anyone’s guess. (I’m getting tired of guessing!)

For now, I guess we should be grateful that the Sacramento market appears to be stabalizing even if it does look either a) short lived or b) artificially driven.  Time will tell.

Thanks for visiting

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Tags: sacramento homes for sale, Sacramento real estate market

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 10:11 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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