Elk Grove is one of at least two greater Sacramento markets (the other being Antelope) that are on the verge of becoming sellers’ markets due to high demand for bank foreclosures.  Prices have fallen 31.8% on a sold price per square foot basis from April of 2007 to April of 2008.  This April’s average home sold for $285,131, while the median was $270,000.  Apparently a lot of folks thought that price was pretty good for an (average) 2,039 square foot home, because more than twice as many homes sold this April in Elk Grove compared to last April.  (Unit sales were 124 units and 251 units for April 2007 and April 2008, a 102.4% increase).

Nor was a doubling in unit volume the only indicator showing a high demand for homes in Elk Grove.  For the first time in recent memory, the ratio of sold price to list price rose above 100% for a non-trivial sample size of local homes.  To put that in non-statistics speak:  buyers are bidding more for homes than they’re listed at in Elk Grove.  The 251 homes that sold in Elk Grove in April fetched an average of $285,131, or about .8% more than their $282,915 list price.  In April of 2007, in contrast, homes fetched an average of 1.7% less than list price.

Likewise, the expired to sold ratio was low in Elk Grove this April at only 27.1%.  Contrast this with an expired to sold ratio last year of 85.5%.

We can’t officially call Elk Grove a seller’s market yet, since Inventory is currently at 8.3% if you use the absorption rate of the last 12 months.  Inventory of REOs, however, which made up 69.3% of all sales in October, is only at 1.7 months.  Currently active inventory is made up of 24% foreclosures, 46.4% short sales, and 29.6% non-distressed sales.

blog comments powered by Disqus