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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.

If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.

Fanny packs, pendings, and a slower market

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I guess I never thought I’d talk about fanny packs on my blog, but here goes. This is either a new high or low depending on your perspective, but I want to share an important concept to consider – especially during a slower market. Then for anyone interested I have a big market update for Sacramento. Any thoughts?

Fanny pack analogy: Imagine spotting a guy wearing a fanny pack. You might think, “Sweet, I haven’t seen one since the early 90s.” The truth is if we only saw one dude sporting a pouch, we’d probably just think this person is trapped in the 80s and 90s (like Uncle Rico back in ’82). After all, one guy’s fashion statement doesn’t mean it’s a trend for everyone. But if we started seeing more and more people wearing fanny packs everywhere we went, then it’s probably a fashion trend. The same thing happens with pendings. If we only have one pending at a much higher level than anything else in the market area, it’s probably an outlier more than anything. It might be an isolated incident that’s totally disconnected from the market (like one guy wearing a fanny pack) rather than a real indicator of value (a trend). But if we saw a group of pendings shifting higher or lower, then that’s probably a trend.

The big point: Sometimes we get so distracted by the bling of one high listing or pending that we fail to see the bigger picture of value in a neighborhood. It’s like we develop tunnel vision and get locked into one outlier rather than looking at everything else that is similar AND trending lower. Sellers in particular struggle with this during the fall because they sometimes only see the highest prices from the spring rather than current listings and pendings that might be generating slightly lower prices because the market has softened. Or it’s easy to see that one overpriced listing down the street and expect to fetch a similar lofty price rather than recognizing that zero properties are getting into contract that high. Thus let’s be cautious not to stake all the weight of value on one “lone ranger” pending or listing while ignoring all other data. Otherwise it’s sort of like seeing one guy wearing a fanny pack and calling it a trend…

Disclaimer: This post was in no way meant to offend anyone who used to wear, currently wears, or will wear a fanny pack.  🙂

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

The market has continued to soften, though it’s not really all that soft. Inventory is up, price reductions have increased, sales volume has been dropping, it took three days longer to sell last month in the region, and price metrics are down about 1% from the height of summer. Overall the market is clearly slowing down for the season, though it’s not painfully dull like it was in 2013 or 2014 during the fall. This is a key to understand because when saying values are “softening” some interpret that to mean the market is really slow or crashing. But that’s not what I’m saying.

Big Point: We have a housing shortage, but that’s not a trump card to stop a slower seasonal trend.

Let’s get technical. Many price stats last month actually showed an increase in value by about 1%. What the? Does this mean the market increased? I thought you just told me the market is slowing? Let’s remember that sales from October really tell us more about properties that got into contract in August and September before they actually closed escrow in October. Thus that 1% uptick really happened in the market a couple of months ago rather than in October. In other words we’ll see the real trend of the market for October when the pendings from October close in November and December. This is so important because let’s not make a big deal about the market technically showing an increase because the uptick didn’t technically happen last month. Know what I’m saying? If we want to see the current market we have to look at the sales, but we cannot forget to give strong weight to the listings and pendings. Are properties taking longer to sell? Are there more listings hitting the market? Are properties starting to generate less offers or offers at lower prices? What are buyers, sellers, and the real estate community saying about the market?

A huge soft stat: Every year the median price and average sales price in Sacramento County tend to soften by about 5%. This doesn’t necessarily mean values decline by 5% in every neighborhood or price range, but it does mean we can expect price softening in most areas during the fall season.

By the way, here’s an article I wrote for Comstock’s magazine this month about some of the different layers of the Sacramento market right now.

I could go on, but let’s get visual.

DOWNLOAD 62 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 $349,450. It’s up slightly from last month but down 1% from summer.
  2. The median price is 9.2% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in October was 5.4% lower this year than 2016. There were 1456 single family detached sales last month.
  4. It took an average of 29 days to sell a home last month (one year ago it was taking 4 days longer).
  5. The median days on market last month was 15 days.
  6. It took 1 more day to sell in October compared to September (median days).
  7. FHA sales were 19.9% of all sales last month in the county.
  8. Only 0.7% of sales last month were bank-owned & 0.7% were short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was about $221, which is about 1% lower than last month (9% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price increased about 1% last month and is currently $386,000. This is 9.4% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 12.2% of all sales last month.

SACRAMENTO REGION (more graphs & stats here):

SACRAMENTO REGION STATS:

  1. The median price is $392,000. It increased about 2% last month, but it’s down 1% from summer.  
  2. The median price is 9.8% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in October was nearly the same as October 2016. There were 2380 single family detached sales last month.
  4. It took an average of 34 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 18 days, which means properties are selling really quickly.
  6. The median days on market increased by 3 days last month, which shows a slowing in the market.  
  7. FHA sales were 16.5% of all sales last month.
  8. Only 0.8% of sales last month were bank-owned & 0.8% were short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was about $227, which is down slightly from last month (9% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price increased about 1% last month and down about 1.5% from summer (but up 9.4% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 15% of all sales last month.

PLACER COUNTY (more graphs & stats here):

PLACER COUNTY STATS:

  1. The median price is currently $455,000 and increased about 1% last month.
  2. The median price is 3.8% higher than the same time last year.
  3. Sales volume in October was 10% higher than 2016. There were 533 single family detached sales.
  4. It took an average of 37 days to sell a home last month (one year ago it was taking 4 days longer).
  5. The median days on market last month was 22 days, which means properties are selling really quickly.
  6. The median days on market increased by 4 days last month, which shows a slowing in the market. 
  7. FHA sales were 9.5% of all sales.
  8. There were only 4 bank-owned sales last month and only 4 short sales.
  9. The avg price per sq ft was $232, which is slightly higher than last month (9.2% higher than last year).
  10. The avg sales price is currently $511,121. This is 6.4% higher than last year.
  11. Cash sales were 18% of all sales last month.

DOWNLOAD 62 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: On a serious note, did you wear a fanny pack back in the day? Anything else you’re seeing in the market? I’d love to hear your take.

If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.

4 things to remember about increasing values and low inventory

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Let’s talk about increasing values and low inventory. ‘Tis the season for this conversation because the market is heating up right now as we are on the cusp of spring. Here are a few things that have been on my mind, and then a huge local market update after that (for those interested). I’d love to hear your take in the comments below. Any thoughts?

values in real estate - sacramento appraisal blog - image purchased and used with permission from 123rf

  1. Front Loaded Market: In a normal market prices tend to heat up in the spring and soften in the fall. While this isn’t true everywhere in the United States (or for every year or type of property), this general reality reminds us that value increases are often loaded into the front part of the year rather than throughout the entire year. For instance, if values increased by 6% last year, it doesn’t mean value went up by 0.5% each month. Instead, any increase in value might actually have occurred from February to June.
  2. Rapid Appreciation: I’ve been hearing lots of chatter about rapid appreciation lately. The idea is the market has increased substantially in value over the past couple months and appraisals are lagging behind the trend. I know low appraisals are a reality, and if appraisers aren’t giving upward adjustments for value increases (when warranted of course), it can lead to conservative appraisals that probably reflect the market two months ago rather than right now. Whatever the case, the Sacramento market has felt extremely competitive lately because of freakishly low inventory, though actual value increases seem more nominal for the spring rather than exponential. Yes, there are some properties that have been bid up 10% or so, but those properties were probably priced far too low since increases that large have not typified this market. Moreover, sometimes markets feel more aggressive than they actually are, so a market’s mantra might be: “Aggressive demand, modest appreciation.”
  3. Not Every Neighborhood: Some neighborhoods and price ranges are trending differently than others. I know that sounds obvious, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s easy to lump all areas and price ranges together. For instance, the median price in the regional market last month increased by 2.5%, but that doesn’t mean values increased by 2.5% in every single neighborhood or price range. When valuing a property, we can keep an eye on trends from the wider area, but at the end of the day we need to look at competitive sales and listings in the subject property’s particular neighborhood. What is the competitive market doing in the neighborhood? If we impose the notion that “values increased by 2.5% last month” on every neighborhood, we’re probably going to make some valuation mistakes.
  4. Less New Construction is Starting to Matter: When the economy collapsed, new home construction sloughed off and has not yet recovered anywhere close to where it was during the glory years from say 2003 to 2005. This might not seem like a big deal, but now imagine the population has grown over the past 10 years, which essentially means there are now less available housing units for a larger population. On top of this, institutional investors bought homes in recent years and are holding on to them instead of selling. Moreover, some owners purchased several years ago are sitting on a sweet 3.5% interest rate and a low mortgage payment. Why would they sell in today’s market unless they really had to? Not all areas in the country are struggling with low inventory, but a lack of new home construction in recent years is actually a big deal, and it’s certainly contributing to a lower housing supply in many markets including Sacramento. Lastly, when there are less housing units for the population, it tends to create an environment where rents increase. This is an important trend to watch.

Any thoughts? I’d love to hear your take below.

—————– For those interested, here is my big market update  —————–

Big monthly market update post - sacramento appraisal blog - image purchased from 123rfTwo ways to read the BIG POST:

  1. Scan the talking points and graphs quickly.
  2. Grab a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes 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 Sacramento Market Summary: The market in February was fairly normal in Sacramento. Values saw a modest seasonal uptick, sales volume increased, and inventory declined. This was all expected because it’s what we normally see at this time of year. But while market stats are more on the tame side, the market has felt anything but that in the trenches of house hunting. Multiple offers are commonplace and buyers are seeming to exude a 2004-ish frenzy to get into contract before values rise too quickly (does that concern anyone?). Despite housing inventory being extremely tight, properties that are priced too high are sitting instead of selling, and that reminds us how price sensitive buyers have become. The market is definitely a sellers’ market, though that doesn’t mean sellers can command any price they want. It’s interesting to note it took 12 less days to sell a house this February compared to last February, and only 3.4% of all sales in the region last month were short sales. One last thing. There is a big difference in the mood among buyers when mortgage interest rates are closer to 3.5% compared to even 4.0%, so watch rates and the market closely.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY:

  1. It took an average of 46 days to sell in both February and January.
  2. It took 12 less days to sell this February compared to last February.
  3. Sales volume was nearly identical in February 2016 compared to last February.
  4. FHA sales were 24% of all sales last month.
  5. Housing inventory is 25% lower than it was last year at the same time.
  6. The median price increased by 6.7% last month (take that w/ a grain of salt).
  7. The median price is 6.7% higher than the same time last year.
  8. The avg price per sq ft increased by about 1% last month.
  9. The avg price per sq ft is 6% higher than the same time last year.
  10. Sales volume in 2016 is roughly the same as the same time last year.

Some of my Favorite Graphs this Month:

Median price since 2013 in sacramento county

inventory - February 2016 - by home appraiser blog

inventory in sacramento county Since 2013 - part 2 - by sacramento appraisal blog

CDOM in Sacramento County - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Median price and inventory since 2001 by sacramento appraisal blog

market in sacramento - sacramento appraisal group

SACRAMENTO REGIONAL MARKET:

  1. It took 1 day longer to sell a house last month than January.
  2. It took 12 less days to sell this February compared to last February.
  3. Sales volume was 2% lower in February 2016 compared to last February.
  4. FHA sales were 22% of all sales last month.
  5. Short sales were 3.4% and REOs were 4.8% of sales last month.
  6. Housing inventory is 20% lower than it was last year at the same time.
  7. The median price increased 2.5% last month from the previous month.
  8. The median price is 3% higher than the same time last year.
  9. The avg price per sq ft declined slightly last month (less than 1%).
  10. The avg price per sq ft is 7.9% higher than the same time last year.

Some of my Favorite Regional Graphs:

sales volume 2015 vs 2016 in sacramento placer yolo el dorado county

sacramento region volume - FHA and conventional - by appraiser blog

months of housing inventory in region by sacramento appraisal blog

days on market in placer sac el dorado yolo county by sacramento appraisal blog

median price and inventory in sacramento regional market 2013

number of listings in sacramento regional market

PLACER COUNTY:

  1. It took 7 more days to sell a house last month than January.
  2. It took 6 less days to sell this February compared to last February.
  3. Sales volume was 4% lower in February 2016 compared to last February.
  4. FHA sales were 20% of all sales last month.
  5. Cash sales were 19% of all sales last month.
  6. Housing inventory is 17% lower than it was last year at the same time.
  7. Sales volume is up 2.5% this Jan/Feb compared to last Jan/Feb.
  8. The median price increased 2.5% from the previous month.
  9. The median price is up nearly 11% from February 2015.
  10. Short sales were 1.5% and REOs were 4.3% of sales last month.

Some of my Favorite Placer County Graphs:

days on market in placer county by sacramento appraisal blog months of housing inventory in placer county by sacramento appraisal blog number of listings in PLACER county - January 2016 Placer County housing inventory - by home appraiser blog Placer County price and inventory - by sacramento appraisal blog Placer County sales volume - by sacramento appraisal blog

I hope this was helpful and interesting.

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.

Questions: Any other points to add about increasing values or low inventory? What stands out to you about the latest stats in Sacramento? I’d love to hear your take and what you are seeing in the trenches.

If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.

Speaking fluently in real estate cliches

By 4 Comments

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of speaking fluently in real estate clichés. While there’s maybe nothing wrong with saying, “The market is ‘on fire'”, or “It’s a good time to buy and sell,” there has to be more depth we can tap into, right? It’s almost like if I asked someone how they were doing, and the person said, “I’m on fire at work” or “It’s a good time to be alive.” Okay, that’s great to hear, but what does that really mean? I want to catch specifics because it’s in the details where I can really know a person. The same is true in real estate. When we step away from vague clichés and begin to speak fluently in current market trends, it can be very powerful. Whether you’re an agent, appraiser, or home owner, I hope you can glean something from this post as you tell the story of the market to clients and contacts, and I’d love to hear your take in the comments below. If you’re not in the Sacramento market, how would you describe your area? Are trends unfolding in similar ways?

CHALLENGE: Share one talking point below with a client or contact today (or include a point in conversation on Facebook).

real estate market cliches - by sacramento appraisal blog - image purchased and used with permission from 123rf dot com

Two ways to read THE BIG MONTHLY POST:

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

DOWNLOAD 62 graphs HERE (zip file): 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.

One Paragraph to Describe the Sacramento Market: The latest stats show a couple of things: 1) The market is slowing down as it almost always does during the fall (no surprise there); yet 2) The market is definitely not as slow as it was last year at the same time. For instance, last month in the region it took one day longer to sell a home than the previous month, which shows the market is cooling, but it’s actually taking ONE WEEK LESS to sell a home this year compared to last year. There is roughly two months of housing inventory in the Sacramento region, which essentially means there are only two months worth of houses for sale on the market. This is very low considering last year inventory was at 2.65 months at the same time. This might not seem like a big difference, but the market is actually VERY sensitive to increases in inventory, which is one of the reasons why the market last year felt much slower (and even sluggish) compared to this year. Many times we hear 5 months of inventory is normal, but keep in mind values have declined any time inventory even approached 4 months in Sacramento County over the past 15 years. Anyway, despite inventory being low right now, buyers are not pulling the trigger unless the price is right. In short, Sellers, if you want your property to sit on the market, overprice it. In terms of values, the overall median price in Sacramento County has been about the same for 6 months and the regional market has softened by 2% in recent months. By the way, if you missed my recent post, I gave some perspective on “real estate bubble” conversations, and it’s a very relevant conversation as we see price metrics begin to soften at this time of year (and people freak out about that).

Sacramento County Market Trends for October 2015:

  1. The median price has been hovering around $290,000 for 6 months in a row.
  2. It took an average of 38 days to sell a house last month (up 2 days from the previous month).
  3. Last year at this time it was taking an average of 45 days to sell a house.
  4. FHA sales were 28.5% of all sales last month.
  5. Sales volume is 9.8% higher so far in 2015 compared to last year.
  6. Sales volume was 7.8% higher in Oct 2015 compared to Oct 2014.
  7. There is a 1.78 month supply of homes for sale (similar to previous month).
  8. Housing inventory is nearly 28% lower right now compared to Oct 2014.
  9. The average price per sq ft is 186.5 (7.1% higher than last October).
  10. Cash sales were only 15.5% of all sales last month (18.5% last year at the same time).

NOTE: The graph below shows an increase in the average price last month, but keep in mind the median price and average price per sq ft were flat (this reminds us to not isolate one metric and make it all about that one point).

price metrics since 2014 in sacramento county

inventory - October 2015 - by home appraiser blog

seasonal market in sacramento county median price

seasonal market in sacramento county sales volume 2

seasonal market in sacramento county inventory 2

CDOM in Sacramento County - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

layers of the market sacramento county since 2011 - by sacramento appraisal blog

Sacramento Regional Trends for October 2015 (Sac, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado):

  1. It took 7 less days to sell a house this Oct compared to Oct 2014.
  2. Sales volume was up 5.5% in Oct 2015 compared to Oct 2014.
  3. Sales volume for the year is up 10.3% compared with 2014.
  4. The median price at $326,000 is up 6.8% from last year, but down 2% from the past few months.
  5. It took an average of 42 days to sell a house last month (1 day longer than last month).
  6. FHA sales were 24.5% of all sales in the region last month.
  7. There is 2.06 months of housing inventory (same for past 3 months).
  8. The average sales price is $364,829 (7.7% higher than last year, but down slightly from $370K a few months ago).
  9. FHA sales volume has increased by 30% in 2015 compared with 2014.
  10. Housing inventory is nearly 22% lower right now compared to Oct 2014.

sales volume 2015 vs 2014 in sacramento placer yolo el dorado county

prices in sacramento region - FHA and conventional - by appraiser blog

months of housing inventory in region by sacramento appraisal blog

days on market in placer sac el dorado yolo county by sacramento appraisal blog

median price and inventory in sacramento regional market

number of listings in sacramento regional market

Placer County Market Trends for October 2015:

  1. Sales volume was the same in October 2015 compared to October 2014.
  2. Sales volume for the year is up 14% compared with 2014.
  3. The median price in Placer County is $397,500 (it’s been fluctuating up and down between $390-400K over the past 6 months).
  4. Cash sales were 16.8% of all sales last month (very normal level).
  5. It took 47 days on average to sell a house last month (1 day longer than the previous month month).
  6. Last year at this time it took 7 days longer to sell a house.
  7. FHA sales were 18.6% of all sales in Placer County last month.
  8. There is 2.26 months of housing inventory (18% lower than last year).
  9. The average price per sq ft is 201 (3.6% higher than last year at the same time).
  10. REOs were 2.4% of all sales and short sales were 3.6% of all sales.

Placer County sales volume 2 - by sacramento appraisal blog

number of listings in PLACER county - October 2015

months of housing inventory in placer county by sacramento appraisal blog

days on market in placer county by sacramento appraisal blog

Placer County price and inventory - by sacramento appraisal blog

interest rates inventory median price in placer county by sacramento appraisal blog

I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much for being here.

Quick Pricing Advice:

  1. Remember the market isn’t as soft this year as it was during the same time last year, but we are still seeing values cool during the fall.
  2. Talk about the difference between actives, pendings, and neighborhood sales on your listing appointments and in your appraisals. If listings are selling for less than sales from the Spring market, that shows us the market has changed (and we need to price accordingly). See How to use a CMA to gauge the temperature of the market for a fantastic way to quickly explain what the market is doing to your clients.
  3. The market has been very price sensitive all year, which means buyers are not biting on overpriced listings despite inventory and interest rates being relatively low.
  4. Remember there are many markets within a market, so price according to the neighborhood market rather than county-wide trends since your neighborhood might be more or less aggressive compared to the entire county.

DOWNLOAD 62 graphs HERE (zip file): 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.

Questions: How does the market feel to you this year compared to last year? What are you seeing out there? I’d love to hear your take.

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