Sacramento Home Sales Bounce Back

The area referenced in the article is the Sacramento region. I wrote a few days ago about some stabilization in the real estate market there, and this article from the Sacramento Bee is more positive news. The fact that caught my eye is that Sacramento county had its first year over year sales gain in 37 months. Many on the Internet are still embracing a continued housing slow down because year over year numbers keep falling. Here are some facts I gleaned from the Sac Bee article and related blog:

• April sales in Sacramento county were 24% higher than April 2007. Two other nearby counties also had year over year gains.
• There were 12,606 homes for sale in the 4 county region down from a peak of 16,262. The April sales totaled about 3,000 homes, showing a current 4 month supply.
• New home sales were still down with 454 sales vs. 687 in April 2007.

Anecdotal stories have buyers coming out as home prices have fallen back to 2003-2004 levels and aggressive bidding for foreclosure homes under $300,000. However, there will still be quite a bit of foreclosure inventory to absorb before more normal market conditions return. If the home builders are not building at this time and working off their inventory a positive pricing trend could be here sooner than many expect. Pricing has remained strong in the San Francisco area, which tends to start pushing people out towards the central valley, looking for affordable housing.

This information pertains specifically to the Sacramento region and one month does not a trend make. I report on it because I am familiar with the market and it was one of the worst “offenders” during the price run up.

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