I always enjoy writing about East Sacramento, because the numbers there are so strong month after month (see for example my earlier East Sacramento market updates).  A true maverick, it’s as though East Sacramento never got the memo about the market being bad, and decided to continue to enjoy a sellers’ market amid the most ursine predictions of doom and gloom.

To be sure, East Sacramento posted a slow November compared to last year.  Unit volume fell 27.3%, from 22 units last year to 16 units this year.  During the same period, however, sold price per square foot rose by 6.5%, from $320.32 last year to $341.15 this year.  In November, the average home sold for $463,625, down .9% from last year’s average of $467,984, while dropping 7% in size from last year.  At $415,000, the median selling price was down 5.5% from last year’s median price in East Sac of $439,000.

Along with increasing price per square foot, East Sacramento continues to enjoy other seller’s market numbers, such as low inventory.  With an average of 22 homes selling each month and 68 units available, inventory in East Sac works out to 3.14 months, well below the traditional six-month line of demarcation between a buyers’ market and a sellers’ market.  The expired to sold ratio, already low last November at 36.4%, fell to a meager 12.5% this November.

The only sprinkle of rain I’ve found on this otherwise sunny parade of good news is that short sales are up to 10.3% of active inventory.  However at a combined total of 13.2% for short sales and REOs, the number of distressed sales in East Sac still pales in comparison to the numbers for Sacramento County as a whole (over 50%).

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