If it weren’t for the short sales looming over Greenhaven’s horizon, this market update would look a lot better. Don’t believe me? Read on for the mixed bag of news.

Unit volume has slowed down year over year. We have a 38% drop in sales from last January. While 21 homes last January, this year, we have 13. This 38% drop includes a decline not just in non-distressed sales as we see everywhere in Sacramento county but also a 50% decline in short sales and a 14.3% decline in foreclosure sales year over year. On the plus side, with 7 distress sales and 6 non-distressed homes closing escrow in January, Greenhaven is well-balanced in its real estate market.

Which perhaps leads to the good news – at least for now – in terms of prices. Sold price per square foot just a few cents off last month’s at $170.54. And the “few cents off” refers to a price increase. Overall, it still signifies a decline over last year’s sold price per square foot by 7.4%. The average sales price however shows a gain of 1% year over year. Last January’s number at $305,376 is lower than today’s $308,437. This is something we haven’t seen in a while. And no, you read that right. It is not a typo. Median sales price is the same as last month at $300,000 and year over year suffers a decline of 3.2%. Not bad at all.

Based on the last 12 months of sales, Greenhaven has 4.2 months of inventory and based on the last 6 months there is 4.9 months of inventory. Foreclosure inventory is at 1.5 months. It’s the short sales that are the bad news: 33 active on the market and they make up 19.8 and 22 months of inventory respectively!

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