Sacramento Real Estate Blog

Trick or treat.

As I prepare my report on Sacramento County’s real estate market for October, 2007, I recall  my happy youth watching The Flintstones.  You remember Fred and the gang.  From the town of bedrock, he’s a page right out of history.

One great cartoon gag from the the Flintstones — though surely it has roots all the way back to the Manichean cartoons of the third century — were the Fred Flintstone as devil / Fred Flintstone as angel that would sometimes perch on Fred’s shoulders, whispering instructions.

Sometimes Gazoo would whisper the instructions.

Bloggers, Find Your Voice (From Among Those You Hear in Your Head)

In my case it’s the eternal angelic optimist, Purva Brown, on one shoulder versus the pitchfork-armed bubblers on the other.

Bubbler pokes me with pitchfork:  In terms of unit volume, October was the second worst month in recorded MLS memory.   803 units sold in Sacramento County in October.

Purva flaps angel wings:   C’mon, John, that MLS data only goes back to October, 2004, so all you have to compare it to are good times.  Plus, October’s volume was an increase of  11.7% over September!  Look on the bright side, will you.

OK, you two.  Behave.  Fight it out between yourselves.  Let my shoulders be your last battleground.

The Rest of the Numbers

The median price of a home in Sacramento has fallen to $300,000 in October, down 14.3% from last October’s median of $349,900, and 24.9% from their peak of $399,499 of November, 2005.  Average sold price per square foot was approximately $189.32 in October, down 18.2% from last October’s $231.23, and down 25.5% from the peak of $254.10 (September, 2005).  (Purva:  That’s not fair, John — you keep making the houses lose 1/4 of the value by picking high peak values from different months.  What are you, some kind of bubble blogger now? ).  The average home sold for $327,719 in Sacramento County in October, down 14.9% from last year’s average of $385,233.

Recently we reported that about a quarter of the homes selling in Sacramento County were foreclosures (REOs).  The numbers have now risen to slightly more than one third.  More precisely, of the 803 units that sold in October, 285 (35.5%) were REOs.  Now you bubblers might think you could get an even 50% if you throw in the short sales, but you can’t, because only 31 short sales sold during this period, so the overall total ends up being about 39.4%.

Inventory is 11.61 months for Sacramento County overall.

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