October Market Stats. for Sacramento, El Dorado & Placer Counties

A Quick Peek at What’s Going On in our Market…

October statistics showed another strong sales month in our Tri-County (Sacramento, Placer & El Dorado) market area for home sales. Lack of “For Sale” inventory continues to be a problem for buyers, but prices and interest rates continue to make for an attractive buyer’s market. Comparing October, 2007 to October 2009, SOLD properties totaled 1,206 in 10/07 vs. 2,185 in 10/09, an 81% increase. UNDER CONTRACT showed figures of 1,292 in 10/07 vs. 2,152 in 10/09, a 66.6% increase.

Median Prices in the Tri-County area increased $5,000 for the month. SOLD properties in tri-county had a median price of $215,000 compared to September figure of $210,000. We still have a ways to go to reach October ‘07 median price of $335,000! Placer County had a slight Median price increase to $295,130 compared to September sales of $294,090.

To summarize, unit sales continue to be very strong with a stable, but slowly rising average sales price. If this trend continues, it would not be surprising to see a continual rise of median sales prices. Unemployment and interest rates will be very important figures to watch! Other news is that FHA secured, low down payment loans which are critical to our current lending are scheduled to increase their down payment requirements to a minimum of 5% down. In addition, we have heard that credit scores and debt to income ratios will be increasing. We will update this as more news becomes available.
GOOD NEWS. The Senate has recently signed the extension for 1st time home buyer’s tax credit and they added an incentive for existing home buyers purchasing a home prior to the May 1, 2010 deadline. It now moves to the President for signing. Please contact us for more details.

There still is a shortage of bank owned properties (REO), and Loan Modifications continue to be a failure for most distressed home owners. Short Sales continue to be a huge factor in our local resale market and look to remain strong. Please remember, we are specialists in short sales and have a fantastic completion record. We have just helped create a great analytic tool to help compare loan modifications vs. short sales. This is a must see for any home owner contemplating either one of these solutions. If you know of anyone that is experiencing a hardship and having trouble with their mortgage payments, please have them call us.