Sacramento County Real Estate Market Update: December 2008
If you’re waiting for a happy new year in real estate, this might not be it. Well, then again, it might. But the numbers in Sacramento county are less than prolific. Usually, nothing changes much in December anyway as home owners and home buyers are smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. Their days are better spent visiting than home shopping. Nevertheless, here are the numbers.
Unit volume is up again over November and over last year by a whopping 105.6%. A total of 1914 homes sold in December over just 931 last December. Of these, 72.4% (1385) were foreclosure properties and 10.4% (200) were short sales. Compare that with just 329 non-distressed properties selling in Sacramento county and you will see why prices have fallen yet again. Non-distressed sales now make up 17.2% of the total sales, down 27% from last December. Not co-incidentally, foreclosure sales are up 217% and closed short sales are up 354%!
Sold price per square foot last month was at $122.69. This month, it is down slightly over last month at $120.64 - that is however a drop of 31.6% year over year. The average sales price is also down 36.3% for the same period. It is currently $192,773. Last month, the average home sold for $196,839. Median price also tells the same sad story: 38.3% drop over last year. We are currently at $170,000 down from last month’s $175,000 and December 2007’s $275,500.
The only silver lining here is that inventory has shrunk a little. Sacramento county is currently at 4.2 months of inventory based on the last year of sales and 3.6 months based on the last 6 months of sales. Foreclosure inventory is at 1.9 and 1.6 months respectively.
