Seeing the real estate market without numbers (and a big Sacramento update)

It’s not just about the numbers. Like many, I’m a huge fan of getting deep into real estate stats, but the truth is there are so many other ways to sniff out what the market is doing. Thus I’ve created a list of some of the things on my radar lately that help say something about the temperature of the market. Then for those interested, let’s crunch some numbers with my big monthly Sacramento market update. I’d love to hear your take. Any thoughts?

Ways to see the real estate market without numbers:

1. Facebook Posts: I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen lately saying, “Hey, my friend needs to rent a house. Anyone have something?” Seeing an increasing number of posts like this on Facebook or Nextdoor.com is definitely a symptom of rising rents and scarce inventory.
2. Celebrity Flipping Seminars: Last week an HGTV flipping couple hosted a 4-day “how to flip” seminar in Sacramento, and this week a different “guru” is coming to town. If anything, this tells us the market for flipping has passed.
3. Riskier Loans: As more lower-down payment loan products hit the market, it reminds us buyers need more options to afford higher prices.
4. Sacramento Kings Wins: Here is an image to show the relationship between an NBA team winning and the housing market. Okay, there really isn’t a connection, but it almost looks like there is (you can make numbers say whatever you want).
5. Less Property Tax Appeals: As the market has improved, assessment appeals have declined every year since 2008 in Sacramento County. Right now home owners are enjoying equity again and they’re hardly paying attention to their property tax bills. Here is an image to back that up.
6. More Divorces: As the housing market has rebounded, it seems there are more divorces. I’ll admit stats are tricky in that some sources say divorces are increasing and others say they are not. It may be my personal experience, but I’ve done more divorce appraisals these past 2-3 years than I have in the previous ten years.
7. Builders Being Less Cooperative: I’ve heard from several agents lately about local builders being less cooperative with agents representing buyers. That’s fairly normal for builders of course, though being less cooperative is certainly a luxury afforded by a market with tight inventory too. In other words, if the market had three times the housing supply, conversations might go differently at the sales office.
8. The word “shift”: There is so much emphasis right now on the market shifting or maybe doing so in coming time. When the real estate community uses terms like shift, change, correction, or bubble, it can sometimes highlight what the market is doing (or at least what is on the mind of the real estate community).

Question: What is #9? I’d love to hear in the comments below. By the way, scroll to the bottom if you want to see some of my recent woodworking projects.

—————– For those interested, here is my big 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 70 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post (and more) here as a zip file (or send me an email). 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.

Quick Market Summary: Yep, the stats show the market has been increasing. This doesn’t mean every single price range or neighborhood is going up in value, but county and regional data are definitely showing that trend overall. One of the bigger narratives is that housing inventory is still down by 15% in the region compared to last year. Sales volume has been up slightly for the year and it took 6 less days to sell last month compared to the previous month. For context, last year at the same time it was taking an average of 8 days longer to sell. This reminds us the market has been more competitive this year compared to last year, though don’t take that to mean value increases have been extremely aggressive. Last month the median price increased by nearly 2% in the region, and the average price per sq ft increased by 2.5%. Overall most value stats are up a good 8-10% since last year, though remember it’s not the same market as it was in 2005 when we’d say, “My house went up by $10,000 last month.” It’s still important to price correctly unless you want to sit instead of sell.

Sacramento County:

1. It took an average of 27 days to sell a home last month, which is 4 days less than the previous month.
2. The sales to list price ratio was 100% last month.
3. It took 8 less days to sell this May compared to last May.
4. Sales volume was up nearly 4% in May 2016 from May 2015.
5. There is only 1.35 months of housing supply in Sacramento County.
6. Housing inventory is 22% lower than it was last year at the same time.
7. The median price increased by 3% last month.
8. The median price is 9.6% higher than the same time last year.
9. The avg price per sq ft increased by 1.8% last month.
10. The avg price per sq ft is 9.9% higher than the same time last year.

Some of my Favorite Graphs this Month:

SACRAMENTO REGIONAL MARKET:

1. It took 6 less days to sell last month compared to the previous month.
2. It took 8 less days to sell this May compared to last May.
3. The sales to list price ratio was 99% in the region last month.
4. Short sales and REOs were both 3% of sales last month.
5. There is 1.6 months of housing supply in the region right now.
6. Housing inventory is 15.6% lower than it was last year at the same time.
7. The median price increased 1.7% last month from the previous month.
8. The median price is 6.8% higher than the same time last year.
9. The avg price per sq ft increased 2.5% last month.
10. The avg price per sq ft is 8.4% higher than the same time last year.

Some of my Favorite Regional Graphs:

PLACER COUNTY:

1. It took 2 less days to sell a house last month than April.
2. It took 1 less day to sell this May compared to last May.
3. Sales volume was up 3% in May 2016 compared to last May.
4. FHA sales were 16% of all sales last month.
5. Cash sales were 17% of all sales last month.
6. There is 1.84 months of housing supply in Placer County right now.
7. Housing inventory is 12.4% lower than it was last year at the same time.
8. The median price is about the same as it was the previous month.
9. The median price is up 7% from May 2015.
10. Short sales were 2.1% and REOs were 1.7% of sales last month.

Some of my Favorite Placer County Graphs:

I hope this was helpful and interesting.

My Latest Woodworking: By the way, I know this post has been ridiculously long already (on purpose since it’s my big monthly market update), but here are some of my recent woodworking projects. If you didn’t know, I like to tinker and create.

DOWNLOAD 70 graphs HERE: Please download all graphs in this post (and more) here as a zip file (or send me an email). 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.

Question: Any other market insight you’d like to add? I’d love to hear your take.

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