Sacramento’s real estate prices continued their slow steady fall in May.   (I say slow compared to the pre 2004 climb — a bubble blogger might argue it differently, and that’s fine).  The average home in Sacramento County that sold through the MLS in May fetched $375,529, down 7% from last May’s average of $403,945.  The median sale price was $340,000, down 6.8% from last May’s median of $365,000.  Meantime this priced fetched a slightly larger home than last year, pushing the sold price per square foot figure to $233.00, down 8.9% from last year’s average of $244.67.

As we’ve reported over and over again, and much to the constant surprise of our buyers, just because prices are down, doesn’t mean that buyers are naming their own price.  Naturally when prices rise, sellers hope to sell at tomorrow’s price, and when prices fall, it’s the buyers who are hoping to fetch a future price.  Unfortunately, today’s market always takes place today.  The approximately 10% of the total listing inventory that sells each month is the 10% that’s on the high end of the desirability curve, or the low end of the price curve, and most often both.  As a result, May’s average selling price of $375,529 only represents an average discount to the buyer of 2.4% off of the average list of $384,708.  Sure, that’s a little better than last year’s 1% off of list discount, but it hardly means that buyers are successfully naming their own prices on homes that’s attractive and priced well to begin with.

In other indicators, we continue to operate in a buyer’s market.  There are currently 9.5 months of unsold inventory.  Average days on market are actually not too bad at 53 days, but the expired ratio for those listings that have been on the market is up to 76.2%.

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