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Wait, isn’t the market supposed to be tanking?

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Surprised. That’s how many people seem to feel about the housing market since it’s way more competitive than we thought it would be for a pandemic. In fact, some buyers think they’re about to score the deal of a century until they start shopping and realize we don’t have that sort of market right now.

Look, I’m not wearing rose-colored lenses. I’m not saying the housing market is perfectly healthy or there aren’t glaring red flags on the horizon. I’m just saying there is a sense of shock right now that the market has felt as strong as it has for these past two months.

Two quick things:

1) Imposing headlines: There are lots of sensational headlines, but we need to be cautious about imposing them on the market. What I mean it’s easy to read a headline about the housing market being doomed because of XYZ, and then we expect to see certain trends in the local market. My advice? Look to local data instead and let the numbers form your perception and narrative of the market.

2) Be objective: Every week there’s a new viral idea about the future, but we have to wait and see what happens. I know it drives some people crazy when I say that, but it’s true. There are obviously red flags about the future in light of forbearance and unemployment in particular, but we still don’t know how both issues are going to play out exactly. This is why I recommend knowing the numbers and being objective about the future instead of tossed around by every new sensational idea.

NEW MARKET VIDEO: We’re two months into the pandemic now and it’s been five weeks since the market bottomed out. We’ve seen a shift up in new listings and pending contracts, and this tells us both buyers and sellers have been getting used to this market. This is 14 minutes. Check it out below (or here).

BRAND NEW VISUALS:

I’ve been in my Excel workshop cutting up some brand new graphs. Are there any keepers?

Unemployment: We’re seeing some huge changes in unemployment, so I plan to update these visuals monthly.

Inventory by price range: Here is a crazy-looking visual to show inventory by price range. I know this is a hot mess, but I share specific price ranges below. The point is inventory is not the same in every price range or neighborhood.

Days on market: Did you know homes spent 29% less time on the market this April compared to last April? Here’s a look at how long it took to sell by price range. In short, the market was more aggressive at lower prices (not a surprise). Also, don’t read too much into million dollar stats because there are fewer sales in this segment.

2-4 Units: I’ll be watching the multi-unit market to gauge change and whether we see a bigger drop in volume than the single family market. Of course we also have to consider rent control as an added layer that can affect the trends this year too.

Volume at the top: I’m watching the market above $600K to gauge if there is more change at the top than the bottom. In this visual I’m asking how the percentage of “jumbo” prices so to speak changes over time. This isn’t the perfect visual to tell us everything, but if we see this percentage decrease it might be a clue that less deals are happening at higher price points. Also, I know I need to change the graph to say “15%” instead of “0.15%”. For the life of me I couldn’t get that to work.

Volume change by price range: It’s important to study what the market is doing at various price points. I’ve been asked countless times about the upper end of the market lately. Frankly, we need more time. We only have two months of data. But here is a visual that I’ll be adding to over time. This visual basically gauges the change in the number of sales between April 2019 and April 2020 by price range.

Keep in mind the BOTTOM IS NOT CRASHING. The lowest prices saw a huge dip in volume close to 60%, but that’s because these price ranges had such a huge rate of appreciation over the past year. There are simply fewer sales under $300K this year, so the numbers at the bottom look really sensational on this graph. In short, this is where we have to know how to think through the numbers. Please don’t say the bottom is crashing (it’s not).

WEEKLY STATS: I’m updating this one every week.

BIG MONTHLY UPDATE:

This is long on purpose. Skim or digest slowly. Your call.

Let’s dive into Sacramento, Placer, and El Dorado County (and the region).

DOWNLOAD 100+ visuals: Please download all graphs here as a zip file. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

I don’t have market commentary this month because I’ve been giving so much commentary in my weekly video (and on Zoom calls). It’s just too much to write more here.

SACRAMENTO REGION (more graphs here):

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (more graphs here):

PLACER COUNTY (more graphs here):

EL DORADO COUNTY (more graphs here):

DOWNLOAD 100+ visuals: Please download all graphs here as a zip file. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

Questions: What stands out to you about the market right now? What are you seeing out there? I’d love to hear your take.

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Addicted to low rates, sending 2x4s, and a market update

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The market feels addicted to low interest rates. So what’s going to happen when rates rise? Let’s travel back to the late 70s for some insight and consider a few thoughts. Then I have a huge local market update for those interested.

A few thoughts about interest rates:

1) Addicted: We have a market that feels addicted to low rates. I guess that’s understandable since rates have been hovering around 4% for the past 6 years. On one hand it seems silly that buyers would freak out about rates near 4.5% because that’s historically low, but at the same time the market is sensitive about rate changes because we’ve become accustomed (or addicted) to low rates. Let’s remember rate changes can make a bigger difference at lower prices too because they can more readily impact affordability.

2) They used to be 18%: Some people say, “You kids are so lucky because when I bought my first house the interest rate was 18%.” There’s some truth there and let’s be in tune with history, yet prices used to be substantially lower too. You bought at 18%, but the price was $112,000.

3) Not the only factor: What interest rates do can end up impacting affordability, sales volume, housing supply, and prices. Check out a deep article by Freddie Mac to read through some of the potential changes coming. Yet let’s remember interest rates are not the only factor for housing. There are many other layers of the market that end up influencing value. We can’t forget about the job market, economy, a housing shortage, financing, creative loans, new construction, cash investors, etc… In short, interest rates are a big factor for the market, but they are not the only factor either. One more thing. Nobody knows the future. While it looks like rates are going to be increasing more, we could be saying something entirely different next year.

When rates doubled from 1977 to 1981 (from Freddie Mac):

1) Mortgage origination fell by 40%.
2) Annual single family home sales volume dropped by 36%.
3) New construction dropped by 51%.

History teaches us a huge change in rates can absolutely sway the market. Obviously an uptick from 4% to 4.5% is not the same thing as 1977, but the effect then reminds us to keep an eye on mortgage origination, sales volume, and new construction (and prices).

I hope that was interesting or helpful. Anything to add?

–——-——- Big monthly market update (it’s long on purpose) ———–——-

It’s starting to look like Spring. Prices are picking up, it took two less days to sell last month, and more listings are hitting the market. It was actually the strongest February of sales volume we’ve seen since 2013. The market has an aggressive feel with multiple offers (when properties are priced correctly), yet in some neighborhoods it almost seems like values have been a bit flat or subdued. Thus it’s a good reminder the market can feel aggressive sometimes without absolutely insane value increases. Keep in mind there are about 100 price reductions every day right now in MLS, and that means buyers are not willing to pay any price despite a housing shortage.

Sales volume is down (barely): There is lots of talk in the media about how sales volume is slumping nationally and is down 3% or more, but it’s only down 0.28% this year in the region compared to last year. It’s actually up from two years ago, which a big point in my mind. In Sacramento County sales volume is down nearly 1.5%, which is about where it’s been hovering lately. This isn’t a red flag for the market, but it would be if sales volume really started to slough. Moreover, knowing that rising interest rates can impact sales volume, this is important to watch over time.

The bottom vs. top: The bottom of the market has less inventory, more competition, and more upward pressure than the top. The highest prices above $1M have over a year’s worth of homes for sale. It’s actually fairly normal to have that much inventory at the high-end, though this month is a bit higher than the same time last year, so let’s keep watching that. Part of having so many listings at higher prices though is sellers are pricing at absurd levels that are totally disconnected from the market. It’s like everyone and their Mom wants to sell for $3M when very few sales in Sacramento fetch those types of prices.

Advice for sellers: Pay careful attention to similar properties that are actually selling in the neighborhood rather than overpriced listings. In other words, price according to the comps and listings that are getting into contract rather than listings that don’t really reflect the market. And don’t use price per sq ft to price your home either.

RENTS: I’ve been focusing more on rents and I’ll keep doing that if people like it. I have a rent folder in the download link below too (data from Yardi Matrix).  

I could write more, but let’s get visual instead.

DOWNLOAD 70 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs here as a zip file. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (more graphs here):

SACRAMENTO REGION (more graphs here):

PLACER COUNTY (more graphs here):

DOWNLOAD 70 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs here as a zip file. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

Questions: How do you think rising rates will impact the market over time (if they do keep rising of course)? Anything I missed? I’d love to hear your take.

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The waking market, pulling stats like a boss, & the year in review

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The market went to sleep for the holidays and it’s just starting to wake up. Let’s talk about that along with pulling stats like a boss. Then I have a huge market update and review for those interested. 

No sales to support higher values: In a normal January the market is in a weird spot. It’s coming out of hibernation from the holidays, and even though buyers eventually start offering higher prices, the most recent sales might not support higher contracts. In other words, sales from November and December might actually be much lower than what buyers are willing to pay in later January and February because the market has begun to awaken out of a lull. The reality is we might not see any upward value movement in sales stats until March, but the upward trend will begin to happen in January and February before we see it in the stats. Data lags the trend. I remind myself of this every year.

Getting practical: In coming time as the market presumably heats up I recommend looking for a pattern of pending sales (probably higher), watching for properties spending less time on the market, and study what prices normally do this time of year in your area. In many locations prices tend to pick up where they left off in the late summer before they faded during the fall.

Game-changing stats: Paying attention to numbers has literally changed my career, so I wanted to give some tips for how to begin pulling stats for a city, county, neighborhood… Here’s a chart you can use to track price changes and a few other key elements (DOWNLOAD here). I highly recommend carving out a few minutes each month to track some of these basics. Then of course find relevant ways to share the numbers with your clients and contacts.

Here’s a video where I talk through how to use the chart as well as mistakes to avoid. It’s about 10 minutes. Click below (or here) and watch in FULL screen:

–——-——- Big monthly market update (it’s long on purpose) ———–——-

Prices have been softening in Sacramento, but it hasn’t been painfully dull like some fall seasons. Overall prices in the region sloughed last month (not a surprise), it took six days longer to sell, and the year closed out with price metrics being about 8-10% higher than December 2016. The number of listings really took a nosedive last month, but that’s what happens since people don’t list in November and December unless they really have to sell. Listings should increase over the next couple months as the market heats up for the spring. I know hungry buyers feel like inventory won’t be coming, but it’ll happen.

Quick insight: Housing inventory is sparse, but one good thing is inventory seems like it went a little more sideways last year instead of declining sharply. On a positive note, the market ended with the lowest number of foreclosures and short sales in the past decade. This isn’t a shocker, but it’s still a sign of healing after the “bubble” burst more than ten years ago. Prices in 2017 increased about the same as they did the past couple years. Lastly, sales volume has been steady for a few years, and that shows the market has found a rhythm.

Recap of 2017 in Sacramento:

I could write more, but let’s get visual instead.

DOWNLOAD 75 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post and more here as a zip file (includes a stat sheet too). See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (more graphs & stats here):

Sacramento County Stats:

  1. The median price is currently $350,000. It’s about the same as last month & down 0.5% from summer.
  2. The median price is 11.1% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in December was 5.6% lower this year than 2016. There were 1392 single family detached sales last month.
  4. It took an average of 36 days to sell a home last month (one year ago it was taking 3 days longer).
  5. The median days on market last month was 21 days.
  6. It took 3 more days to sell in Dec. compared to November (median days).
  7. FHA sales were 20.5% of all sales last month in the county.
  8. Only 0.7% of sales last month were bank-owned & 0.2% were short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was about $221, which declined last month (9.6% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price softened about 1.5% last month and is $379,962. This is 10.5% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 13% of all sales last month.

SACRAMENTO REGION (more graphs & stats here):

Sacramento Region Stats:

  1. The median price is $385,000. It softened nearly 1% last month.  
  2. The median price is 10% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in December was down 4.7% this year. There were 2202 single family detached sales last month.
  4. It took an average of 42 days to sell a home last month (one year ago it was taking 2 days longer).
  5. The median days on market last month was 24 days, which means properties are selling really quickly.
  6. The median days on market increased by 5 days last month, which shows a slowing in the market.  
  7. FHA sales were 17.5% of all sales last month.
  8. Only 1.6% of sales last month were bank-owned & 0.9% were short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was about $225, which decreased 2% last month (8.4% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price decreased 2.5% last month and is 9.1% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 14% of all sales last month.

PLACER COUNTY (more graphs & stats here):

Placer County Stats

  1. The median price is $450,000 and decreased slightly last month.
  2. The median price is 6.1% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in December was 3.6% lower than 2016. There were 450 single family detached sales.
  4. It took an average of 48 days to sell a home last month (one year ago it was taking 1 less day to sell).
  5. The median days on market last month was 28 days, which means properties are selling really quickly.
  6. The median days on market increased 9 days last month (don’t read too much into that). 
  7. FHA sales were 12.6% of all sales.
  8. There were only 4 bank-owned sales last month and only 7 short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was $228, which softened about 3% last month (5.7% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price is currently $510,174. This is 8% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 14.9% of all sales last month.

DOWNLOAD 75 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post and more here as a zip file (includes a stat sheet too). See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

Questions: What are you seeing out there in the market? Anything I missed? I’d love to hear your take.

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Is the market so “hot” that we won’t have a slow fall this year?

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Values are going to keep going up. The market is so “hot” we’re not going to have a fall slowdown this year. I’ve heard this sentiment quite a bit lately and I’ve even thought it myself. Yet today let’s remember five things about the fall season. Then for those interested we’ll dive deeply into the latest Sacramento trends.

5 things to remember about the fall market:

1) A general truth: Unless we have reason to believe there won’t be a slower fall season, let’s believe there will be one because it’s normal for real estate to have seasons.

2) The typical signs are happening: When the market starts to slow we usually see certain symptoms, and we’re seeing those right now. Inventory has increased slightly, sales volume is starting to slough, and prices in the region dipped a bit last month. Yet Sacramento County stats are nothing but glowing, which makes it hard to believe a slowing could happen.

3) Slow vs. slowing: The market is NOT slow, but we’re seeing slowing. That’s a big distinction for many markets in the country right now. In reality it almost sounds offensive to say the market is slowing when we have multiple offers and bidding wars, but things right now don’t feel quite as aggressive as they did in April and May. We’re seeing slightly more price reductions, slightly less offers, and buyers more frequently not accepting counter offers like they did a few months ago. I know, this isn’t true in every transaction. All I’m saying is we are generally seeing more symptoms of a slowing market (but it’s NOT slow).

4) Not always dull: Sometimes the fall months can be really dull, but other times not so much. Thus even though the stats sag at the end of the year, it doesn’t always feel like the market is dragging. My guess is the fall softening this year will not feel as dull because of how low inventory is right now.

5) Rare: It’s rare to not have a seasonal market. The only time I can think of us not having a fall slowdown in recent years was in 2012 when investment funds and flippers were gutting the market. Values simply kept going up, and investors basically trumped the seasonal market that year.

I hope that was helpful or interesting. Any thoughts?

–——-——- Big monthly market update (it’s long on purpose) ———–——-

Glowing and slowing. That’s a good way to sum up the market. The stats are generally glowing, but we’re starting to see subtle signs of a seasonal slowing. Price stats in Sacramento County increased by about 1% last month and they’re up 8-10% from last year (that doesn’t mean actual values are up that much in every neighborhood and price range). Though if we look closely, especially in the region as a whole, prices dipped by 1% last month, inventory is up slightly, and sales volume sloughed off last month (which isn’t a surprise). Properties have been selling very quickly still in only 9 median days in Sacramento County and 11 in the region. For perspective, on average it was taking about a week longer to sell a home last year. The market actually tends to normally show a slowness in days on market between June and July, but we didn’t see that this year, which is a reminder the market feels a bit more aggressive right now compared to last year. Overall housing inventory increased last month, but the bigger story is it’s down about 14% in the region from last year. Despite all the glorious stats, the market is still price sensitive, which means buyers aren’t willing to pull the trigger at any price (did you hear that sellers?). Oh, and by the way, the median price in Sacramento County is now 10% from the peak in 2005. I could go on and on with words, but let me share some graphs to show the market visually.

DOWNLOAD 65 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post and more here as a zip file (includes a stat sheet too). See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

Sacramento County graphs this month (more graphs & stats here):

Sacramento Regional graphs this month (more graphs & stats here):

Placer County graphs this month (more graphs & stats here):

DOWNLOAD 65 graphs (and stats) HERE: Please download all graphs in this post and more here as a zip file (includes a stat sheet too). See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim).

Questions: What signs of glowing or slowing are you seeing? Do you think we’ll have a fall market? Did I miss anything? I’d love to hear your take.

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