Have you bought a Powerball ticket? It’s wild to think someone is probably going to win 1.5 billion dollars this week. Of course there’s an extremely slim chance you’d actually win, but if you do, here are some things you can buy when it comes to real estate. After that, let’s take an in-depth look at Sacramento’s housing market.

8 real estate things you can buy if you win Powerball

1. All current listings in Sacramento: You could literally buy every single active residential listing in Sacramento, Placer, and Yolo County (and still have about $150M left).
2. NBA Team: You could buy the Sacramento Kings NBA team and have about one billion to spare.
3. 63 million Shares of Zillow: You could buy 63,911,376 shares of Zillow ($23.47 per share).
4. Buy an Island: This is an obvious choice for a billionaire. You could easily buy your own island. Heck, you could buy a group of islands. See some islands that are for sale right now.
5. Own 7 Years of East Sacramento Sales: If you bought every single house that sold on MLS in East Sacramento since October 2008, you would still have 600 million left.
6. Build a Sports Stadium: Most recent professional sports stadiums have ranged in cost from around $500M to $1.5B. For instance, the 49ers new stadium cost around $1.3B and the Sacramento Kings stadium is coming in around $500M. If you buy, what are you going to name it?
7. Build a Bigger House than that One Guy in India: You may remember hearing about a 27-story residential home that was built in India in 2014. This home can withstand an 8.0 earthquake and it’s the second most expensive home in the world behind Buckingham Palace. Keep in mind it requires a staff of 600 to care for it. The property was said to have cost $1B total, so you have the coin to pull it off (Wikipedia).
8. Do Some Good: Imagine the good you could do if you won the lottery. But we know that’s not going to happen. The great thing is we don’t have to wait to win Powerball to be generous since generosity is only relative to how much money we have – whether two dollars or $1.5B.

By the way, the winner won’t actually get 1.5 billion. I realize a huge sum is coming off the top right away for taxes and such.

Now let’s look at the latest Sacramento real estate trends.

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 78 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.

Quick Market Summary: If I had to sum up the market last year I would say: Modest value appreciation, but aggressive demand. If I added a few more details I would say the story of the market is summed up as follows: More sales, lower inventory, higher demand, a fairly normal fall (though far less dull than 2014), and modest value increases over the year. Right now housing inventory is only 1.28 months in the region, which is 32% lower than last year at the same time. Overall sales volume in 2015 was 10.8% higher in the regional market, and it’s important to note FHA volume increased by 30% this year. In December it took 4 days longer to sell a home than it did in November, and that reminds us the market experienced a seasonal softening dynamic even in the midst of more competition. Remember though it was taking 90 days to sell a house four years ago, and selling in less than half the time right now helps us see the market can be different each year depending on inventory, interest rates, the economy, etc…  Overall most of the value increases came in the first two quarters of the year, and the market was fairly flat for the past six months in terms of value. Buyers really haven’t had very many options because of how low inventory has been, but at the same time buyers are exhibiting price sensitivity by not pulling the trigger on overpriced listings. One last aspect worth mentioning is rents have been increasing in many areas in Sacramento, and it’s worth watching this trend.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY:

1. It took 4 more days to sell a house last month than November (but 7 days less than last year at the same time).
2. Sales volume was 20% higher this December compared to last December.
3. Sales volume was 10.9% higher in 2015 compared to 2014.
4. FHA sales represented 27.5% of all sales during the past quarter.
5. Housing inventory is 41% lower than it was last year at the same time.
6. The median price increased by 2% last month (see #6).
7. The average price per sq ft and average sales price stayed about the same from the previous month (so don’t put too much weight on #5).
8. The average price per sq ft is 10% higher than last year at the same time.
9. The median price is 11% higher than it was last year at the same time.
10. REO sales were less than 4% of all sales last quarter (Short Sales were less than 5%).

Some of my Favorite Graphs this Month:

SACRAMENTO REGIONAL MARKET:

1. It took 3 more days to sell a house last month than November, but it was taking one week longer to sell at the same time last year.
2. Sales volume was 14.5% higher this December compared to last December.
3. Sales volume was 10.8% higher in 2015 compared to 2014.
4. Housing inventory is 32% lower than the same time last year.
5. Cash sales were only 15% of all sales in 2015.
6. The average price per sq ft, median price, and average sales price showed a slight seasonal dip over the past few months.
7. The avg price per sq ft is 7.5% higher than last year at the same time.
8. The median price is 5.6% higher than it was last year at the same time.
9. REO sales were 3.5% of all sales last month.
10. Short sales were only 3% of all sales last month in the region.

Some of my Favorite Regional Graphs:

PLACER COUNTY:

1. It took 6 more days to sell a house last month than November, but it was taking 5 days longer to sell at the same time last year.
2. Sales volume was 1% higher this December compared to last December.
3. Sales volume was 13% higher in 2015 compared to 2014.
4. Housing inventory is 16% lower than the same time last year.
5. Cash sales were only 15% of all sales in 2015.
6. The average price per sq ft, median price, and average sales price showed a slight seasonal dip over the past few months.
7. The avg price per sq ft is 3.6% higher than last year at the same time.
8. The median price is 2% higher than it was last year at the same time.
9. REO sales were 1.8% of all sales last month.
10. Short sales were only 3% of all sales last month in the region.

I hope this was helpful and interesting.

DOWNLOAD 78 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 would you spend the money if you won at Powerball? What stands out to you about the latest stats in Sacramento? How would you describe the market? I’d love to hear your take.

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