Sacramento Downtown Real Estate Market

Posted by John Lockwood on June 19th, 2008

This is a summary of the real estate market for Downtown Sacramento, 95814 and 95816. 

This is also a good time to make the following three points:

Real estate is local.

Real estate is local.

Real estate is local.

Yes, all over Sacramento County, foreclosures made up more than 60% of the sales this May, up from only 15.8% last May.

In downtown, however, a total of 1 foreclosure sold in May.  That’s one less than last year’s 2 foreclosures, with no short sales either year, so foreclosures are down 50%, downtown.  Eighteen homes sold overall — no short sales, so non-distressed sales made up 94.4% of all sales.

Overall in Sacramento County, prices fell like a rock.

Downtown, from May to May, the average sold price rose 9%, from $472,170 in May of 2007, to $514,753 in May of 2008.  The average sold price per square foot rose 8.5%, from $325.44 in May of 2007 to $353.26 in May of 2008.

As healthy as downtown is, however, in terms of price and the low number of foreclosures, you can’t exactly call the downtown market a seller’s market.  Inventory amounts to 8.1 months, and this year’s unit volume is down 10% over last year’s.  Still, with rising prices and low foreclosures, the makings of a very strong market are there, even if some of the indicators point the other way.