Agent: March Not Looking So Sunny

I stumbled upon a new housing blog (link also on right) hosted by Rocklin & Roseville Today, a local online news site. Julie, the agent/blogger had this observation about the Sacramento real estate market in March 2006:

The January numbers were "to early to tell" how the 2006 real estate market in Sacramento would shape up. Now we have February reports which are more positive than we have seen for the past few months, but still don't paint a very clear picture of what is going to happen this year. If it were just the numbers, I would say some of the local pundits are correct in predicting a "return to normal" after the last five years of double digit increases and bidding wars on anything with a "for sale" sign in the front yard.

Based on my personal business and talking with colleagues the past few weeks, the steam we started to feel building in mid January and early February has been dampened by the last three, almost four, weeks of winter weather. The rain and cold seems to be keeping buyers inside or at least not driving from the bay area. Right now, I am not feeling as bold as I was last month when I made three positive predictions. Even though I was right about modest growth in the median price and increased sales volume, I was wrong in predicting a slight decrease in the inventory of homes for sale. With the prediction for more rain this month, I don't think we are going to see February performance as the start of a new positive trend for the year. I will, however; predict if and when the rain ends and warmer weather gets here, we will see a nice surge in activity as the buyers start getting out and looking again.

Julie's prior/parallel blog is here.