"Hidden" Inventory? Expired Listings Surge

Inventory in the Sacramento area climbed signficantly last fall, peaking in November and declining somewhat in December. Inventory is again on the rise in January. Many commenters in the bubble blog world speculated that the pause in inventory build up stemmed from pulled or expired listings and the normal holiday slowdown.

Looks like Sacramento may have a "hidden" inventory of expired listings afterall. The Sacramento Real Estate Blog is reporting a surge of expired listings for December 2005. The data shows that expired listings as a percentage of solds in Sacramento was 47% in December 2005. That's up from 11% in December 2004. Placer and El Dorado counties show similar numbers.

This should get interesting...