After writing yesterday’s article about East Sacramento’s real estate market, I started to wonder if maybe part of the reason was that all along it had not seen the wild over-valuation that some other areas had experienced during the boom years of 2003-2005.  With this in mind, I decided to take a look at the Land Park area (i.e., the area known in MLS as “Land Park / Curtis Park”, zip code 95818).

The reason is that I remembered thinking in 2004 or so that prices were way out of line in Land Park.  One home in particular stands out in my mind from that time as a real piece of junk, yet it listed for something well over a half million dollars.

Well, in looking at Land Park’s numbers, it quickly became clear that Land Park was behaving a lot like East Sacramento.  The answer to East Sac’s success, therefore, was probably not so much that it was never over-valued as that it simply retained its peak value better, like Land Park.

Like East Sac, this November’s crop of Land Park homes was significantly (12.5%) smaller than last year.  Thus, though the average sale price dropped, sold price per square foot rose from year to year.  This November, the average home sold for $495,795, down 8.4% from last year’s average of $541,321.  Reflecting the average size of this year’s home, the median fell even further, 18.8%, from $520,000 last November to $422,000 this November, an 18.8% drop.  Yet over this time, sold price per square foot rose 4.7%, from $318.61 to $333.64.

Like East Sacramento, this year the expired to sold ratio is down from last year’s numbers.  Last year the ratio was 54.2%, while this year the number is only 22.7%.  Another sign of the sellers market in Land Park is the inventory, which is only 3.88 months.

So, if you’re looking for a Sacramento home that’s close to downtown and increases in value when the market appreciates, and holds its value when the market is down, it’s hard to beat 95818 and 95819.

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