Sacramento Real Estate Views

Total Number of Homes for Sales Increases

Is The Sacramento Real Estate Market Slowing Down?

Every month this year the total number of homes for sale has been increasing.  With tax credits offered by both the state and federal governments, it’s been a boom for first time home buyers over the last year and a half. (they represent over 50% of the home sales over that time)

Many economists and industry experts have been saying to expect a “double dip” in the housing market with second dip still to come and eminent now that the federal tax credit has expired with no sight of there being another extension on the federal level.

Experts have also said that interest rates would be going up as the fed is all but done buying mortgage backed securities thus keeping the interest rates artificially low.

While sales numbers since the 4th quarter of 2009 have been steady, seasonally adjusted, the total number of homes for sale has been increasing.  Is this the beginning of the slow down in sales that industry analysts have been predicting?  Or is it just the seasonal increase that we see most every spring building up to the “selling season” before summer begins?

If inventory levels continue to increase and sales just stay where they are, we could see the second dip in our market that further depresses values.

Local Economy Is Slow To Recover

With unemployment in our region at or exceeding 12.5% and the state of California, the largest employer in the region, teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, it doesn’t make sense that the area would see a quick housing recovery.

Yet, many areas in the lower price ranges have increased in value and sales have been brisk throughout the region due to the affordability factor.

Now that the tax credits are coming to a close, I would expect that we’d see a slowdown in sales in the Sacramento real estate market.  That said, I don’t feel that we’ll experience another “crash” so to speak.

It feels like the dip we’ll see will be more shallow than last time, if there is a dip at all.  We’ll probably experience more of a slow down and a subsequent flattening rather than a dip.

The Sacramento region has taken a larger hit in the housing downturn than most other areas of the nation excluding Nevada, Florida and Michigan where losses have been similar to ours.

While I have no crystal ball and can’t predict anything and can only speculate like the rest of the industry analysts, I’d say that until we straighten out the economic mess in the state, the Sacramento region real estate market will be on unsteady ground.  That said, housing will plod along without much in the way of gains for some time to come.  I hope I’m wrong.

A stretch? Well…no, LOL but at least I’m here following the market and keeping you updated.  What’s your agent doing?

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Big Box Sites Providing Bogus Info?

Information Often Out of Date

I work with many, many buyers in the Sacramento real estate market.  In the process of searching for a home, most of them at one time or another will ask me to look up a property they found from a site other than the MLS searches that they receive from me.

The concern is always the same. Why aren’t these homes included my searches?

Without fail, I get the address, search the property to find out that, especially with short sales, the property is already sold or has a contract pending on it.

Why is that?  Why do the “big box” sites have so much inaccurate information?

Why These Sites Exist

The first thing to understand about these sites is that they’re primary focus is generating income from the traffic that comes via the search engines.  You type in an address of a home you think might be perfect for you and sites like Movoto, Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com come up with the property you’re looking for as well as others.

These sites make it appear that the property is available just waiting for you to make an offer.  I can’t tell you how many times  when I search these properties, especially in short sales, that the property status is either pending sale or at a minimum active short sale contingent.

In other words, the home is unavailable.  Particularly in the market conditions we have been in for over a year where the inventory of homes for sale is slim and the competition is high.

These sites generally don’t change the status of the listings they tap into from the MLS.  It appears as if the property is still available when in fact it isn’t.  They still get the traffic to the site and from that they are able to sell advertising opportunities to agents and other real estate related businesses.

Are Realtors Any Better?

I also hear from people looking for an agent and clients alike that getting an agent to call you back is the biggest chore of all.  I hear the complaints from the consumer about how self centered agents are when they talk about being “service oriented” but they can’t pick up the phone to connect with what will make their businesses run….people.

For this, I have only one solution.  Call me.

Generally speaking, Realtors and real estate agents are a very odd lot that I’ve yet to figure out.  They know what they need to do yet the majority neglect to do it.

I do know this.  Call me and you will get a return phone call as I’m always looking to help someone get into a home whether that home is worth $100K or $1,000,000.  If I’m not available, someone on my team will be.  You won’t be neglected.

Our main concern is doing what we are licensed to do.  Sell homes.  We do it day in and day out.

Once you get through to us, we’ll make sure you get the most updated and ACCURATE information available about whatever area and home characteristic you’re interested in.  Nothing more and nothing less directly from our MLS.

The Final Word On The Big Box Sites

Despite some of the information on these sites being inaccurate, it does allow the consumer a platform to access some information without being “hassled” by another salesperson.   I respect that most would rather not hear from a Realtor/salesperson type and I don’t blame you.  Realtors/real estate agents can be obnoxious.

Find the right one.  Make some calls, find one that you feel has your best interests in mind and will help you sort through the myriad of information out there to find the best solution for you.

We’re always available to help.  Give us a call or fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you promptly.  We promise you won’t be disappointed.

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Tags: homes for sale sacramento rocklin roseville

First Quarter Home Sales Decline

Pace of Home Sales Slows In Sacramento Region

Over the last couple of years, the pace of home sales in the Sacramento real estate market has been very brisk.  Prices have been very low in comparison to the 2005/2006 peak and home buyers have been coming out in droves to snatch up the great deals as soon as the come on the market.

With incentive after incentive being tossed about like water balloons on a hot, summer day, the pace of sales depleted the inventory of homes for sale more rapidly in 2009 making the buying environment very competitive.

Even though January 2010 sales were down by almost 17% compared to last year, January 2010 ranked second in sales over a span of the last 5 years.  Still decent sales just not as high as last year.

Many expect sales to slump after the credit money runs out.  For the federal government, that’s in 22 DAYS!

For the state, as they have set a cap on the amount of money that will be credited back to buyers in state tax credits, that incentive should be depleted by June or July by state estimates.

The state of California homebuyer incentive only lasted 3 to 4 months last year.  The credit has expanded this year and officials expects people to buy in similar numbers as last year.

We’ll see.  With interest rates poised to go up, who knows what affect that will have on sales regardless of the incentives available.

As usual, it’s a wait and see.

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Number Of Homes for Sale Increases

3 County Area Inventory Jumps Up

We’ve been talking about this for quite sometime but I wasn’t sure, and I’m in good company, that we’d begin to see the number of homes for sale in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties increase.

It looks like the recent slow down in sales since the beginning of the year has helped there be more homes available for sale.

Wouldn’t know it as there are still multiple offers flying everywhere.  The decrease in bank owned homes and the resulting increase in short sale homes available is making the “regular real estate” and bank owned homes very competitive.

Now that the governor has signed a new tax credit into law, I would expect that sales won’t suffer depending on what interest rates do.  Interest rates are above 5% for the first time this year and one year ago were around 4.75%.

Most sources I read think home sales in the Sacramento region will slow over the coming year barring additional intervention from the government or banks who suddenly get it and start working to get short sales processed more quickly.  More on that later.

Looking for an experienced agent to help you sell or purchase a home in the Sacramento region?  Fill out the form below and I’ll get back to you promptly.

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Tags: homes for sale sacramento rocklin roseville, sacramento homes for sale

QUICK STATS – Sacramento County Homes for Sale

Short Sales, REO’s and Regular Homes for Sale

I get questions all the time about what percentage of short sales, bank owned (aka REO) homes and regular real estate listings there are in the market.

It seems like all there is out there right now is short sales but surprisingly, this isn’t the case.  What’s happening is when a home that isn’t a short sale or bank owned comes on the market, it’s snapped up so fast that most don’t see it come up.

I know in our office, when a home comes up that is regular real estate it goes very quickly.  No fuss, no muss type listings.  Very easy to get done in comparison to dealing with any bank.

As of this writing, the total number of single family homes for sale in Sacramento totaled 3854.  These are homes in active status’ in the MLS.  Only about 35% of the listings are short sales which was surprising to me as that’s all there seems to be available.  Coming in just over 20% of the listing inventory are bank owned homes or REO’s.

The remaining 45% of homes for sale are regular real estate.  But understand this – 55% of all single family homes for sale in Sacramento County are in some form of a distress sale.  Wow..

Got questions?  Feel free to contact me anytime.

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Tags: homes for sale sacramento rocklin roseville

Homes for Sale in Sacramento

Homes Available for Sale Continues Decline

The total number of single family homes is down again this month in the Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado county areas.

As of this article, there were 5549 detached single family homes for sale in the 3 county area.

This is down from a high in January of 6538, 1000 fewer homes representing a 15% inventory decrease over the last ten months.

Foreclosures Increase, Banks Holding Back Homes

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