housing prices

I reached the point of political exhaustion last week in a big way. This doesn’t mean I’m tuned out, but right now I find myself glossing over Facebook rants or skimming certain conversations because they’re only going lead to arguments. Yet still I hoped we could chat briefly about politics and real estate – without unfriending each other. Then let’s take a deep look at the Sacramento market. Any thoughts?

Huge Data Fail & Predicting Real Estate: The media laid an egg when it came to predicting the presidency. In fact, it seemed like many political pundits were shell-shocked when election results were coming in contrary to their predictions that Hillary would win. I don’t mention this so we can argue, but only to remind us of the danger of predicting, being wrong, and then having pie on your face (losing credibility). If some of the best political minds in America couldn’t predict the outcome of the presidential race, can we really predict the future of the real estate market with certainty?

Trump Presidency and Newlyweds: I’ve been asked a couple of times this week how a Trump presidency has impacted real estate so far. My answer is simple. Imagine asking a newlywed couple after one week of marriage to tell us how their marriage is going. It’s only been a week though. We probably need more time to really know how married life is going to unfold. The same holds true with Trump’s impact on real estate. We haven’t had enough time to see waves in the market yet, and nobody really knows how his policies will affect housing. There are many predictions right now, especially about repealing Dodd-Frank, but those are only guesses (see paragraph above).

Any thoughts?

—-—–—– And here’s my big monthly market update  ———–—–

Two ways to read the BIG POST:

1. Scan the talking points and graphs quickly.
2. Grab a cup of coffee and spend time digesting what is here.

DOWNLOAD 71 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post (and more) here as a zip file. Use them for study, for your newsletter, or some on your blog. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim). Thanks.

NEW: I created a one-page market sheet to print and keep handy when talking about real estate. I figured it might be helpful to use while talking on the phone. I’m not sold on the look, but is this a step in the right direction? Download here.

Quick Market Summary: A brutal election season has ended (thank God), and many Americans feel worn out, but the market doesn’t feel that tired. The truth is when we look at the stats we are seeing about what we’d expect at this time of year. Ultimately prices are down 1-3% from the height of summer, it took two days longer to sell a house last month, and inventory is down 14% in the region from last year. It’s easy to see softer stats and assume the market is beginning to crash, but the market softens like this almost every single year (besides 2012 when Blackstone and friends gutted the market and we didn’t have a normal fall season). I’m not saying values are not inflated, affordability isn’t becoming more of a factor, or even the market won’t turn at some point, but only that things feel fairly normal right now for the season. Sales volume has been strong this year in Sacramento and is up slightly from last year despite cash and FHA volume both dropping by 7-8%. Inventory is anemic and there really isn’t a quick solution to deal with that problem, but buyers are still finicky about price despite very few homes being listed on the market. Sellers don’t get this, so they try to command whatever price they want, but that rarely works in this market. Keep in mind buyers are scouring Zillow and Redfin every single day, they are visiting properties with their agent, they are getting beat out on other homes, and they are often looking for MANY months before getting a contract accepted. Sellers frankly are not doing anywhere near this level of research, which is one reason sellers are less in tune with proper pricing. Check out specific stats and graphs below for Sacramento County, the Sacramento Region, & Placer County.

Sacramento County:

1. The median price is $320,000 and is down a few percent from the height of summer, but it’s 10% higher than last year.
2. The average price per sq ft was $202 last month (down 1% from a few months ago, but 8.5% higher than last year).
3. There were only 38 short sales and 31 REOs in the county last month.
4. Sales volume was 5% higher this October compared to October 2015.
5. It took 3 days longer to sell a house last month compared to the previous month (one year ago it was taking 5 days longer to sell).
6. Sales volume is up slightly this year compared to last year (1% or so).
7. FHA sales volume is down 7% this year compared to 2015 (25% of all sales were FHA last month).
8. Cash sales are down 8.5% this year (they were 12% of all sales last month).
9. Housing inventory is 12% lower than the same time last year.
10. The average sales price at $353,000 is down about 1% from the height of summer (but is 9% higher than last year).

Some of my Favorite Graphs this Month:

SACRAMENTO REGIONAL MARKET:

1. The median price was $357,000 in October. It went up slightly from September but is down 3% from the height of summer (up 9% from last year).
2. The average price per sq ft was $208 last month. That’s down about 1% from the height of summer and 7% higher than last year.
3. It took 2 days longer to sell compared to the previous month (but 5 less days compared to October 2015).
4. Sales volume was 4% higher this October compared to October 2015.
5. FHA sales volume is down 8% this year compared to last year.
6. Cash sales were 13.5% of all sales last month (FHA sales were 21%).
7. Cash sales are down 7% this year compared to last year.
8. Housing inventory is 14% lower than the same time last year.
9. REOs were 1.8% and short sales were 2% of all sales last month.
10. The average sales price was $393,000 in October. It’s down about 3% from the height of summer but 8% higher than last year.

Some of my Favorite Regional Graphs:

PLACER COUNTY:

1. The median price was $438,000 last month (highest point of year, but take that with a grain of salt).
2. The average price per sq ft was $213 last month (down very slightly from the height of summer and up 6% higher than last year).
3. It took 41 days to sell last month (same as previous month but 6 days less than one year ago).
4. Sales volume was about 3% lower this October compared to October 2015.
5. FHA sales volume is down 16% this year compared to last year.
6. Cash sales were 17% of all sales last month (FHA sales were 13%).
7. Cash sales are down 3.6% this year compared to last year.
8. Housing inventory is 13% lower than the same time last year.
9. Both REOs and short sales were each 1% of sales last month.
10. The average sales price was $481,000 and is 8.5% higher than last year.

Some of my Favorite Placer County Graphs:

DOWNLOAD 71 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post (and more) here as a zip file. Use them for study, for your newsletter, or some on your blog. See my sharing policy for 5 ways to share (please don’t copy verbatim). Thanks.

Questions: Did I miss anything? What impact do you think Trump will have for the real estate market (if any)? What are you seeing out there? I’d love to hear your take.

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