Often when one is stuck in traffic, the cause of the slowdown is not an accident that’s actually blocking a lane, but an accident in a lane going in the opposite direction. That’s because your fellow human beings love nothing more than to to see the accident. There’s nothing like a good beheading to have a tale to take home to the missus. The same principle applies to the news business, where they apply that infamous editorial principle: “If it bleeds, it leads”.

I was a little behind on this month’s numbers, and the rubbernecking began about a week ago.

Well, take heart, accident fans. I’m not sure if there was a beheading, but July’s Sacramento County residential real esate numbers show the statistical equivalent of a good case of whiplash at least, so you can go tell the wifey all about it.

Still, the median sale price of a residential property in Sacramento County dropped somewhat less than the Sacramento Bee reported, according to MLS statistics. I believe the Bee reported a 5% drop, which could either be due to rounding or the fact that they rely on Dataquick data, which — unlike the MLS — would also include private sales (FSBOs). Anyway, it’s fairly close, my excel spreadsheet gives the number at a 4.5% drop from July to July in the median price — from $377,000 to $360,000. Meantime, my own favorite statistic, sold price per squre feet, dropped 3.4%. The average home sold in July for $402,337, down .3% from last year’s average of $403,591. The average list price was $407,970.

Both expireds and inventory are up significantly. Inventory is at 9.5 months. The expired to sold ratio, at around 11.6% last year, is now up to 83.3%. (The significance of this number, once again, is that a 100% ratio means as many homes are expiring as selling). 1176 units sold in July, with 980 expiring. This year’s unit volume was down 47.3% from last year.

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