Sacramento Real Estate Market Charts - April 2009

After steadily declining this spring, average price per square foot rose 1.8% from March. According to TrendGraphix, that was the first monthly increase in Sacramento County since April 2007. Prices are still below January levels and down 23.1% from last year.

Turning to median price, the Sacramento Association of Realtors reports the median price in Sacramento County (and West Sacramento) fell 29.5% in April. That was the first year-over-year decline since March 2008 not to reach at least -30%.




So far, no "spring bounce" for median price as measured by the MLS. The median for single-family homes has been essentially flat since February. Unlike the previous three years, the median price has remained below January levels.




The median price is now at April 2001 levels.

Sales in April were 17% higher than the previous year. That was the smallest year-over-year increase since March 2008.




Looking at the historical record, sales remain at relatively high levels. While the inevitable spring bounce between February and March was the weakest in at least 9 years, that is not surprising considering the record sales of January and February.

Here's a look at the percentage of MLS sales which were bank-owned. At its peak in January 2009, REO sales made up three-fourths of total MLS sales. That proportion has dropped off in the last few months as REO inventory has shrunk, presumably due to legislative tinkering and private foreclosure moratoriums.

Finally, here's an update on Sacramento County's foreclosure statistics from ForeclosureRadar.

'One more sad cry in a horrible storm'

From the Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento's economy stands to lose around $1 billion over the next 18 months because of layoffs and unpaid furloughs imposed on state workers by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger..."The purchasing power of the state worker in Sacramento is huge," said Teresa Halleck, president of the Golden 1 Credit Union. "The last thing any one of us wants to see is further impact to the local economy."
...
"It seems like one more sad cry in a horrible storm," said Mike Lyon of Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento. Although it won't devastate the housing market, the cut in payroll will make a dent, he said. Some homebuyers probably will have deals fall through or won't qualify for a mortgage, he said.

From Bloomberg:

If you were searching for pockets of optimism in the U.S. housing market, where would you look? Easy guesses would be to avoid Detroit, Cleveland or any cities with domestic automobile plants or troubled manufacturers. Then there are the foreclosure gulches of Central and Southern California, which include the Modesto, Stockton, Bakersfield, Riverside and Sacramento areas. Those cities will take a long time to recover. Too many homes there were sold at bubble prices to people with dodgy finances.

From the Sacramento Bee:

In the wake of a prolonged California housing slump, nearly one-third of the state's homeowners with a mortgage will find it impossible to refinance, according to Irvine-based First American CoreLogic. In Rancho Cordova's Sunrise-Douglas area, almost nine in 10 homeowners of ZIP code 95742 fit into that category, said the firm. That's because the ZIP code consists almost entirely of new homes sold and financed at near-market highs. Falling values have erased their equity.

Elsewhere, thousands spent part of their home equity gains during the boom. All are now "under water," industry shorthand for owing too much to refinance. Analysts call the condition a major contributor to the state's foreclosure crisis.

From the Sacramento Bee:

The city of Sacramento is poised to approve a huge new shopping center just a few miles from the Elk Grove shopping center where construction has stalled. City Council members are scheduled to vote Tuesday on Delta Shores, a new community with about 5,000 housing units and 1.3 million square feet of retail – the equivalent of an Arden Fair mall.
...
[A]t least one retail expert suggested the city could be making a mistake. "If they were starting to build it today, it would be foolhardy, and in 2010 it could be foolhardy," said George Whalin, head of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos. "I don't know anybody who is looking to build anything new," Whalin added. "The mall guys, the shopping center guys, all the discussions now are how do we pull back, how do we stop projects that are on the drawing boards."

In December, Sacramento median home price dropped to $180,000 according to SAR [pdf], a decline of 55% since peak.

Average Buyer has a handy chart of equity destruction by zip code. Price declines from peak range from 18% to 76%.

Sacramento Real Estate Statistics notices that so far in 2009, Sacramento home inventory is on the rise à la 2007.

"Another Dubious Honor" - DataQuick: Sacramento Median Falls Below $200,000

From the Sacramento Bee:

October brought another dubious honor to the Sacramento County real estate market, as median home prices for new and existing homes combined dipped below $200,000 for the first time since April 2002. The symbolic drop -- to $195,000 -- came exactly one year after the county's median sales price for the same category fell below $300,000, according to MDA DataQuick statistics released today...[The] median price is 34.9 percent below Oct. 2007 and 49.6 percent below its Aug. 2005 high of $387,000.
...
The Sacramento Association of Realtors reported that 73 percent of October sales in Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento involved bank repos. Alan Wagner, SAR president said the pattern will last "well into the future" because many vacant bank-owned homes have yet to come to market.

From News10:

Many leasing agents can't understand why there are so many apartment units for rent across Solano County. "We expected to see a high occupancy rate due to the foreclosure crisis, but it never happened," said Katie Evans, a leasing agent at Riverstone Apartments in Suisun City.
...
"Many people might be moving away or losing jobs or moving in with friends or family membvers to save cash," said Gloria Daskalakis at Dover Park Apartments in Fairfield.

From the AP (via News10):

High foreclosure rates and employee costs are forcing the Northern California city of Rio Vista to consider bankruptcy...[City Manager Hector] De La Rosa says Rio Vista could shut down within the next week....

Perfect Storm - Sacramento Median 50% Off Peak, Drops Below 200K

We're right on track for a 50% decline by 2009 2008.




Source: Sacramento Association of Realtors

Sacramento Unemployment Breaches 7%

Source: EDD [pdf]

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

The unemployment rate in the four-county Sacramento area hit 7.3 percent in July, up a half-point in just one month and sharply higher than the July 2007 jobless figure of 5.6 percent...The Sacramento metropolitan area last saw a jobless rate this high when it hit 7.4 percent in January 1996, as the region was coming out of a recession.
...
[W]age and salary employment dropped by 9,700 jobs from June to July....[T]he area was also down 1 percent -- 9,100 jobs -- from July 2007 to July 2008, with 5,100 construction jobs disappearing.

From KCRA:

Beefed-up code enforcement of bank-owned homes is leading to more violations and liens being placed on foreclosed properties, officials said. Some of these fines can be up to thousands of dollars.

The problem for taxpayers, KCRA 3 has learned, is that multiple banks -- instead of paying those fees to fix the properties -- are dropping sale prices as much as 50 percent to get the property out of their hands. "What they (code enforcement agencies) are doing is not forcing the bank to fix it up," said Mike Lyon of Lyon Real Estate. "They are forcing the bank to give it away."

From the LA Times:

First Rep. Laura Richardson was having problems making house payments, defaulting six times over eight years. Then after a bank foreclosed on her Sacramento house and sold it at auction in May, the Long Beach Democrat made such a stink that Washington Mutual, in an unusual move, grabbed it back and returned it to her.

This week, in the latest chapter in the housing saga, the Code Enforcement Department in Sacramento declared her home a "public nuisance." The city has threatened to fine her as much as $5,000 a month if she doesn't fix it up.

Neighbors in the upper-middle-class neighborhood complain that the sprinklers are never turned on and the grass and plants are dead or dying. The gate is broken, and windows are covered with brown paper. "I would call it an eyesore," said Peter Thomsen, a retired bank executive who lives nearby.

From Housing Wire:

The nation’s worst-performing counties continue to be centered in hard-hit California, CoreLogic’s data show: Sacramento County has seen prices fall 26.12 percent from June of last year, while Santa Barbara County has seen prices fall 25.54 percent; San Bernardino, 25.41 percent. In the past three months, San Bernardino has seen prices fall 7.46 percent, the second worst such showing nationwide (the worst performer was Calif.’s Sutter County, which saw a 7.87 price decline).

From the Sacramento Bee:

Existing home sales kept climbing in Sacramento County and West Sacramento during July, with homes repossessed by banks accounting for 70 percent of escrow closings, according to the Sacramento Association of Realtors. Prices continued to fall.

From the Stockton Record:

In a hot foreclosure sales market, the latest trend taking shape is investors bundling their cash to buy bundles of homes...Terry Hull Sr., a Stockton real estate developer and co-owner of a family-owned property-management firm, said he is organizing a group of as many as 50 local investors to pool enough money to buy 25 to 30 houses...Twenty investors already have bought in at $25,000 per share, he said.

The buyer of one share is Bob A. Sullivan, a semi-retired owner and broker of a Stockton real estate firm. He said he expects to no less than double or triple his investment. "What I like the best is the timing to buy," he said. "Prices are really depressed right now. In my mind, there's no question that prices will go up again considerably. Whether it's one year or five years, I don't know. I don't see any downside."

'Promises, Promises, Promises'

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

[Leslie] Appleton-Young’s job includes overseeing the association’s analysis of the statewide housing market and industry trends. Realtors want to know what’s ahead, so sometimes she has to make predictions. Usually, she’s right. [LOL!] Sometimes, she’s not.

Last fall, she estimated that median home prices in California would drop 4 percent in 2008. Recently, she revised her estimate to 8 percent to 10 percent. [The median has dropped 19.1% since December.]
...
[Appleton-Young:] What jumped out at me, in looking at the statistics, was that the percentage of first-time buyers was low, 26 percent of all home buyers. That’s the lowest number since 1979, and it’s a testament to the affordability hurdles that first-timers face.

Jim Wasserman has the latest TrendGraphix figures. The SAR numbers for June are available here.

From the Sacramento Bee:

The bailout of mortgage firms Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will help stabilize the wobbly recovery in Sacramento's real estate market, analysts said Monday. But the collapse of big mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc. last week continued to shake Wall Street, depressing the prices of other bank stocks, and showed that many perils remain.

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

“The government sector seems to be strong when we need it to be and the private sector is strong when it needs to be,” said Bob Burris, deputy director at the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization. “It’s kind of a hedge in difficult times.”
...
Nobody is discounting the concern about 10 percent across-the-board cuts in state government, but there appears to be consensus that actual job losses will not be significant. “Our thought is the state employee reduction will largely be absorbed through elimination of vacant positions or retirements,” said Michael Cohen, director of state administration for the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Steven Cochrane: Prices peaked in late ’05, though the plunge really started about a year ago. The trouble is there’s no end in sight yet. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
...
I’m fairly certain when the budget is passed, we will start to see some cutbacks in state employment. Sacramento will be the hardest hit — Sacramento and any other area that has a high concentration of state government.
...
Suzanne O’Keefe: The market is maybe reaching a bottom.
...
Sanjay Varshney: The foreclosure rates are still high. Yes, there are a lot of foreclosures that have been picked up by buyers, but that certainly hasn’t had an impact on declining values of existing homes.
...
Sacramento is much more vulnerable. The reason is that Sacramento does not have the paychecks to support the housing market that evolved in the last five years...Really, we need to go back to ... when a good 3,000-square-foot home was only $250,000.

From the Appeal Democrat:

Patti Clary, director of YouthBuild for the Yuba County Office of Education, said the $165,000 three-bedroom, two-bath house on Pine Street — on the market for a year — would have been snapped up during the boom days of California home-buying. "These were a real deal," Clary said. "Now they're not."

The YouthBuild houses still represent a good buy, excellent construction and a program that provides 18-to-24- year-olds training in building and other skills, said board of education President Sidney Muck..."The question still looms whether it's overpriced," [Mercy Housing vice president Greg] Sparks said. "I don't think that they're way out there."

From the Sacramento Bee:

A number of small school districts in the foothills of Placer County are considering a merger to combat years of dwindling enrollment and shrinking funds from the state....Placer Union High School District initiated a preliminary study of district reorganization by the Placer County Office of Education to see how merging school districts would improve the schools' financing.
...
The additional cash flow might entice districts hit hard by a struggling housing market, an older population and fewer students to keep schools open.

From the Stockton Record:

The dramatic decrease in this area's population growth may be some of the best news possible for our cities. Census Bureau figures released last week show that from 2000 to 2007, Stockton's population grew roughly 17 percent, to 287,245. That makes Stockton the 62nd-largest U.S. city.

But much more interesting, perhaps, is that population growth slowed considerably starting in 2005, coinciding with the start of the real estate market meltdown. The collapse of the overheated housing market throughout California, but especially in San Joaquin County, with its proximity to the Bay Area, means this area has grown increasingly less attractive to Bay Area residents looking to escape stratospheric housing prices.

From the Modesto Bee:

When Joe Melendrez bought his home in Bridle Ridge, a master-planned community on Oakdale's southwest edge, the promise of a park and friendly neighbors were crucial. "I assumed I'd look out the window to a park and could cross the street to visit my neighbors," he said. "I'm still waiting for both."

Rather than a lush park, with kids playing and families enjoying picnics, Melendrez looks out over a field of knee-high dead weeds and construction debris..."Promises, promises, promises" Melendrez said. "The only activity around here is when they dump more concrete in the field that was supposed to be a park."
...
At least two builders in Bridle Ridge declared bankruptcy, city manager Steve Hallam said....

LA Land: Waiting in line: That was then... This is now.

"Buy and Bail"

From the Wall Street Journal:

Next month, Michelle Augustine plans to walk away from her four-bedroom house in a Sacramento, Calif., subdivision and let the property fall into foreclosure. But before doing so, she hopes to lock in the purchase of another home nearby. "I can find the same exact house as what I live in right now for half the price," says Ms. Augustine, 44 years old, who runs a child-care service out of her home. She says she soon will be unable to afford her monthly payments, which will jump to $4,000 from $3,300 in August, and she doesn't want to continue to own a home that is now worth $200,000 less than what she paid for it two years ago.

In markets hit hardest by falling home prices and rising foreclosures, lenders and brokers are discovering a new phenomenon: the "buy and bail," in which borrowers with good credit buy a new home -- often at a much lower price -- then bail out of the "upside down" mortgage on their first home.
...
Ms. Augustine, the Sacramento day-care provider, became a first-time homeowner in November 2006 by taking out two loans with nothing down to cover the $426,000 home purchase. With her home valued at about $220,000 now, she is actively looking in nearby communities for another one to buy before the bank forecloses on her current home.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Sacramento Association of Realtors says that a whopping 65.5% of 1,654 homes sold by Realtors in May were bank-owned, foreclosed, homes. The median sales price in Sacramento County and the City of West Sacramento May was $230,250, down 34.2% from a year ago.
...
Sacramento may be leading the nation in the sheer percentage of lender sales, which are known in the business as “real estate owned,’’ or REOs.

From the Sacramento Union:

The truth is that...Congresswoman [Laura Richardson] is a failed speculator. She flipped houses as the housing bubble was popping and her bets have come due. Now she wants some sympathy and, yes, a bailout. If Congress and the White House decide to rescue defaulters like Richardson, it will be a “life-changing moment” for the nation. We will have rewarded those who carelessly leveraged themselves during the housing bubble at the expense of those who prudently avoided mortgages they could not afford.

Sacramento Real Estate Market Statistics - March 2008 - SAR

The Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR) has published real estate market statistics for March 2008. The full report is here.

The median price of single-family homes in Sacramento County/West Sacramento fell 27.2% from last year.



Sacramento's median home price is now 35.1% off its August 2005 peak.



Here's a look at the median price since 2001.





March marked the second month in which sales exceeded prior year levels. Sales were up 4.6% versus March 2007.



The following graphs show the number of sales since 2001.

12-Month Price Drop Exceeds Entire 1990s Decline

It's been a while since I last posted charts based on data from the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR). Here's a look at January's price and sales trends for single-family homes in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. Click the charts to enlarge. To compare to other price indexes, click here.

Sacramento's median home price declined an astounding 28.2% over a 12-month period, the sharpest drop on record. That compares to a 24.1% decline over the 6-year 1990s housing bust. January marked the 19th consecutive month of year-over-year percentage declines and the 6th month of double-digit declines.



The total decline since peak breached the 30% barrier for the first time, falling 35.1%.



Like DataQuick, the SAR's median price dropped to 2003 levels (in this case November 2003).





The number of escrows closed in January declined by 1.6% compared to last January. This marked the first single-digit percentage drop since August 2005. Sales have dropped on a year-over-year basis for 32 consecutive months.



Here's a look at sales since 2001.

'Piece of Cake' Housing Downturn Exceeds 90s 'Depression'

They said it wouldn't happen, but it just did.

The decline in Sacramento home prices has surpassed the total decline of the 1990s housing bust. According to the Sacramento Association of Realtors, the December median home price fell to $280,000, a drop of 28.7% from its August 2005 peak of $392,750. That compares to a 24.1% drop between July 1990 and December 1996.



Much of the collapse in Sacramento home prices has occurred over the last year, with the median price plunging 21.1% since last December. It is the first time during this housing bust (and quite possibly the first time in Sacramento's modern history), that the median sale price for existing single family homes decreased by more than 20% year-over-year.

Sacramento Real Estate Market Charts - September 2007

Data source: Sacramento Association of Realtors

'Negative press is a major factor keeping inexperienced buyers at bay'

From the Sacramento Association of Realtors:

“An influx of homes on the market, along with the subprime mortgage situation, has slowed activity, but homes are still being sold,” says 2007 Association President and REALTOR® President Tracey Saizan...If you have good credit and want a lifetime investment, now is an excellent time to buy. The credit crunch is contributing to the notable inventory and negative press is a major factor keeping inexperienced buyers at bay,” continues Saizan, “but REALTORS® who have experienced these market fluctuations are patient and will endure the softness in this market.”

MLS Statistics for September 2007, Sacramento County and West Sacramento

Change in Median Price

• Since Sep 2006: -11.8%
• Since 2005 peak: -18.5%
• Consecutive months of YoY declines: 15
• Consecutive months of double-digit YoY declines: 2
  

Change in Sales

• Since Sep 2006: -36.1%
  
• Since 2004 peak: -69.6%
• Consecutive months of YoY declines: 28
• Consecutive months of double-digit declines: 25

Mid-Year Graph-o-rama

It's time for this blogger to go on vacation. But before I leave, I thought I'd churn out these graphs for your viewing pleasure. Click on each graph to enlarge. As always, you can compare different price measurements here.

Sacramento Association of Realtors


Change from Peak: -$52,800


Change from Peak: -13.4%


YoY Change: -10.5% (1st Double-Digit Decline)
12th Consecutive Month of Price Declines YoY


YoY Change: -26.5%
v. June 2005: -55.1%
v. June 2004: -58.5% (boom sales peak)


California Association of Realtors


Change from Peak: -$42,830


Change from Peak: -10.9%


YoY Change: -8.5%
12th Consecutive Month of Price Declines YoY


27th Consecutive Month of Sales Declines YoY
22nd Consecutive Month of Double-Digit Declines YoY


DQNews


YoY Change: -11.2%
13th Consecutive Month of Price Declines YoY


Sacramento Bee (TrendGraphix)

'I Certainly Feel We're at the Bottom of the Market'

From sacbee.com:

Capital-area home sales showed a slight rebound in May from the previous month, but sales remained well below last year and prices continued a long weakening trend everywhere but Yolo County.

La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday that 3,211 new and existing homes changed hands in May in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. That was 336 more escrow closings than reported in April in the eight counties. But it was about 1,000 fewer than in May 2006, DataQuick reported.
...
[A]cross much of the region median prices continue their 12-month trend of year-over-year declines. Placer County's 7.7 percent median price drop from the same time last year -- and a 5.5 percent decline in Sacramento County -- still rank among the highest price dips in the state's major urban counties. The median price of a home in Placer County in May was $429,000, down from $465,000 a year ago. It was $345,000 in Sacramento County, down from $365,000 in May 2006.

From sacrealtor.org [pdf]:

"Economists at the California Association of Realtors see another year or two of a soft resale market in Sacramento," said 2007 Association President and Realtor Tracey Saizan. "We’re particularly impacted because of the high number of new tract homes on the market that are being deeply discounted. It’s emotionally tough for the average home seller to compete with the aggressive price cutting that’s going on in the new developments."
…
"It appears that sellers who are unable or are disinclined to lower their asking prices had better be prepared to wait another year or eighteen months at least to ride this cycle out," Saizan said.
…
At $350,000, Sacramento's median home sale price stands 7.7% below the $379,000 median price of a year ago.

From nationalcity.com:

The most highly concentrated declines, while widely dispersed, occurred in areas that had experienced the most dramatic run-up in overvaluation, including California, Florida, New York, and New England. The industrial Midwest was hit hard by the cutbacks in automobile manufacturing. The most dramatic declines among the nation's large metro areas were seen in California's Central Valley. Sacramento CA, where prices fell by 8.2% in the past year and 10.0% since 2005, experienced the greatest decline among the nation's large metro areas.

From the Modesto Bee:

Property values seem to be on everyone's mind. That was especially true Wednesday for the more than 500 people who attended the Valley Real Estate and Economics Conference in Modesto. The hot topic was the depressed real estate market, and speakers offered conflicting views about how long it will last.

Some predictions were dire. Stephen Endsley, the longtime real estate investor who organized the conference, gave the most gloomy forecast: Housing prices will continue to fall 5 percent to 10 percent per year for the next five years. "It took us five years to get into this housing bubble, and it probably will take us five years to get out," said Endsley, a retired cardiologist.

That prediction was too harsh, according to Mike Zagaris, president of PMZ Real Estate in Modesto. Zagaris said the market may spend "another couple years drifting along" at current values, which makes this a good time to buy.
...
Few people are buying anything these days.

In Stanislaus County, only 3,700 homes are expected to sell in 2007, which is about half as many as sold in 2004 or 2005, according to Craig Lewis, president of Prudential California Realty. Lewis said median home prices have fallen from $414,000 in 2005 to $359,000 now, and it takes nearly three months to sell the typical home.

"First-time home buyers have the ability to buy now, but … they're sitting back and waiting because they think the price will go down more," Lewis said. He doesn't agree. "I certainly feel we're at the bottom of the market."

So does James Brenda, president of JKB Homes, which has developments in Turlock, Denair, Hughson, Oakdale and Riverbank. "A lot of price corrections already have taken place," Brenda said. He predicted home prices will be flat until next spring. "After that, it's going to be a long steady climb."

Sacramento Housing Market - SAR Report, April 2007

Sacramento housing market statistics from the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR):

• Sales (yoy): -27.7%
• Median price (yoy): -2.7%
  
• Median price (peak): -6.3%
  

Numbers are for existing single-family home sales in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. Additional statistics are available at sacrealtor.org.

April marked the 23rd month in which sales failed to keep pace with prior year levels. Sales have suffered double-digit annual declines for the past 20 months.

Just how far have sales slid since the housing boom? April 2007 sales are down 55% from April 2005, down 58% from April 2004, and down 63% from the boom-time sales peak in June 2004.

The graph below shows home sales from 2001 to the present. (Click to enlarge)



So far, the month-to-month sales pattern appears to be mirroring 2006, with sales peaking in March.

Sacramento Association of Realtors - March 2007 Statistics

Sales of existing single-family homes in March dropped 26.4% from the previous year, according to the Sacramento Association of Realtors. March marked the 22nd consecutive month that closed escrows in Sacramento County and West Sacramento have declined on a yearly basis. Sales have fallen by double-digit percentages in each of the last 19 months. The number of new escrows also declined 26.2% compared to March 2006 and 10.4% versus February.



Meanwhile, the median sales price hit its lowest point since peaking in August 2005. The median has dropped $42,750 or 10.9% since its high point. It was the first time this measurement has registered a double-digit percentage drop. Year-over-year, the median fell 6.5%, the largest monthly decline since appreciation went negative last July.



For a comparison to other Sacramento housing price indexes, click here.

Sacramento Housing Market Statistics

More DataQuick median price numbers for February via dqnews (and archived here):

• El Dorado: -1.34%
  
• Placer: -5.38%
  
• Sacramento: -6.98%
  
• Yolo: -10.00%
  

Data is for resale single-family residences and condos as well as new homes.

Since Placer County became the first California county to register a price decline back in January 2006, the 4-county region has largely dominated the California depreciation club. In February 2007, that distinction passed to Merced County, which registered a 14.67% decline.

Significantly, February was the first month in which all listed Central Valley counties chalked up year-over-year (yoy) price declines, with Kern County finally succumbing:

• Fresno: -6.33%
  
• Kern: -1.83%
  
• Madera: -5.27%
  
• Merced: -14.67%
  
• San Joaquin: -7.11%
  
• Stanislaus: -9.38%
  
• Tulare: -4.09%
  

Here are February results from the California Association of Realtors. This data is based on MLS single-family homes sales in the Sacramento region.

• Change in median price (yoy): -1.2% [8th month of yoy declines]
  
• Change in median price (from peak): -5.2%
  
• Change in homes sold (yoy): -17.5% [23rd month of yoy declines, 18th month of yoy double-digit declines]

Here are the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR) results for February. Figures are for MLS single-family home sales in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. Additional statistics are available here.

• Change in median price (yoy): -1.5% [8th month of yoy declines]
• Change in median price (from peak): -6.4%
• Change in homes sold (yoy): -14.7% [21st month of yoy declines, 18th month of double-digit declines]

The SAR sales graph has been updated. Click to enlarge.



Interestingly, in SAR's press release [pdf], the organization acknowledged the impact the sub-prime implosion is likely to have on the Sacramento housing market.

The Association of REALTORS® is aware that the widely publicized restructuring in the sub-prime lending market will likely have a dampening effect on real estate sales, at least in the short term. "Being entangled in risky loans and a declining market is clearly painful for lenders as well as mortgage borrowers,” said [SAR President Tracey] Saizan. "More disciplined lending policies will be good in the long run for home buyers and the mortgage bankers who serve them."

Given the mortgage meltdown, will sales peak in March as they did last year?

Want more? Julie Jalone has TrendGraphix's press release for February. Based on the press release and the information available at golyon.com, the average price per square foot in Sacramento County declined 5.0% from last year and 9.4% since peaking in September 2005. Pending sales dropped 8.5% from the prior year.

Sacramento Association of Realtors - January 2007 Report

The Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR) has released their MLS data [pdf] for January 2007. Figures are for single-family home sales in Sacramento County and West Sacramento.

• Sales (YoY): -16.1%
  
• 20th month of YoY sales declines, 17th month of double-digit declines
• Median price (YoY): -3.6%
• 7th month of YoY price declines
• Median price (from peak): -9.6% (down $37,750)

More January reports:

• Placer County Association of Realtors - pdf file
  
• El Dorado County Association of Realtors - pdf file

Home Sales 2001-2006

This graph compares sales of single-family homes by year (2001 to 2006) as reported by the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR). Coverage includes MLS sales in Sacramento County and West Sacramento.

Some December statistics from SAR:

• Sales (YoY): -25.6%
• 19th month of YoY sales declines, 16th month of double-digit declines
  
• Median price (YoY): -5.3%
• 6th month of YoY price declines
  
• Median price (from peak): -9.6% (down $37,750)