Sacramento Real Estate Blog

The city of Davis (zip code 95616) seems to be holding up well in this turbulent market. When contrasted with a few other cities, the number of active listings in Davis have fallen along with the number of solds which keeps prices fairly stable.

In 2006, 406 single family residences sold for a median price of $587,500. This year so far 189 homes have sold and 8 more are pending sale for a median price of $560,000. A drop in prices of less than 5% - not bad. But here’s what’s interesting. There are only 67 more houses for sale and their median price is at $630,000.

We see the same result with condos in Davis. In fact, the median value of condos is up since last year, when 57 condos sold for a median price of $329,900. This year, fewer condos sold - 21 to be exact - but the median price was $336,000. 4 more condos are pending sale. There are currently only 16 condos for sale between $259,500 and $577,900.

The Sacramento Bee today reported that Davis is the 56th most expensive place to live in a survey of 317 American housing markets. Sacramento ranks as the 197th most expensive.

4431 45th Street
Sacramento, CA 95820

This beautiful rental is available for rent for just $1050 a month with $1200 deposit.

Don’t miss your chance to see it this Sunday September 30th! Call Purva Brown at 916-712-4255 for more information.

This home has been impeccably maintained - has fresh paint, hardwood floors, a large backyard, a fenced front and back, and comes with a washer, dryer and refrigerator. Water and garbage included in the rent!

See more here.

I’ve just updated some of my long term sales data for Sacramento County residential real estate sales through the MLS, so we thought I’d show you the decline in unit sales. This chart shows the data through August, when 846 units were sold. Based on current sales posted for September, September’s looking like that downtrend in unit sales is going to continue and possibly accelerate.

I for one intend to keep shoveling.

There must be a pony in here somewhere.

Grizzly Flats, a mining town for gold back in 1852 is now a peaceful town at about 4000 feet above sea level (Yes, there will be snow!) and just under 800 people. If you want a place to get away from it all, Grizzly Flats might just be it. About an hour and a half drive from Sacramento - all uphill - it makes a great escape and beautiful white Christmases.

The real estate market in Grizzly Flats seems pretty resistant to a fall in prices this year, although sales have slowed. Last year 40 homes sold for a median price of $280,000. They were on the market an average of 74 days.

This year, so far only 23 homes have sold and 2 more are pending sale. But the median price has jumped from $280,000 to $297,500 - an increase of 6.25% Not bad in this market! What’s more, the average days on market went down to 60 days from last year’s 74!

There are currently 45 homes for sale between $169,000 and $550,000.

One person asked about income and gross rent multipliers following up on my Duplex article.  To be sure, historically these numbers haven’t been great for Sacramento County, but I’ve seen some (larger) multi-unit properties pencil out quite nicely since things have started to decline.  I guess my point was that with almost five hundred units in inventory, there may be some that represent an opportunity, and the numbers are moving in the right direction at least.  If someone were interested, I’d naturally be happy to dig further into individual units. 

The other thing that’s overlooked is that duplexes aren’t always sold to traditional investors, even though they’re categorized as investment properties.  Another common scenario is the extended family, in-law quarters or place for the kids, etc.  Sometimes they’re half owner occupied, half investment.

If you’re headed up Highway 5 from Sacramento, it’s hard to miss the city of Woodland in Yolo county. Encompassing the zip codes on 95695 and 95776, it has a population of about approximately 52,000 people.

If you work or study in Davis, but would not want to live there (for whatever reason), Woodland is a nice alternative and is only 8.6 miles away.

In 2006, 448 single family residences were sold in Woodland for a median value of $410,000. In 2006, 16 condos also sold in Woodland for a median of $255,000. So far this year 252 houses have sold for a median of $382,500 - a drop of 6.7% in prices. So far this year, 11 condos have also sold for a median value of $250,000 - a drop of 1.9%

There are 14 condos available for sale in Woodland between $159,900 and $465,000. If you prefer single family homes, there are 370 homes available between $174,000 and $1,799,000.

We haven’t looked at residential income properties in quite some time, but last time we did, we found that the market for residential income properties in Sacramento County was a lot slower than the market for single family homes and condos. Sure enough, that’s still the case today.

Let’s take the case of duplexes. This August, one third fewer duplexes sold than last year. (The numbers are twenty units for last year and sixteen for this year). The average duplex sold this August for $355,969, down 4.8% from last year’s average of $374,021. The median sale price dropped 11.9% during this time, from $392,500 last year to $345,750 this year.

We don’t have figures for square footages or REO information on duplexes, unfortunately, so we can’t talk about those. However, inventory and the expired to sold ratios are the twin smoking guns that point to a market that is every duplex seller’s nightmare. There are 418 units in inventory, which works out to 18.7 months of unsold inventory based on average sales of 22 units per month. However, if you take just August’s sales as a basis, you come up with 26 months of inventory. Either way you slice it, that’s a lot of unsold duplexes people are trying to move.

The expired to sold ratio also tells a story of listings just sitting there. Last August the expired to sold ratio was 204.2%, meaning that roughly two homes expired for every one sold. This year the ratio is 318.8% — fifty-one listings expired and 16 sold.

Contrast these numbers to August, 2005, when duplexes were emblematic of the hot seller’s market. In that month, 78 duplexes sold at an average of $436,694.

We’ve improved our Sacramento Foreclosures portion of the site this morning with two enhancements.  First, if you scroll past the foreclosure listings offer, you’ll be rewarded with a set of foreclosure “Frequently Asked Questions”.  Actually, to be perfectly frank, I think the best questions here are the ones that aren’t frequently asked — and that may keep some people from ignoring the real opportunity that buying a foreclosure represents.  We’ve tried to answer those as well.

The second improvement is that we’ve now added Placer County and El Dorado County to the areas where you can browse short sales and bank owned foreclosures.  Those links are all available from the main foreclosure page, but for your convenience, here they are again:

Bank Owned Properties:

El Dorado County

Placer County

Sacramento County

Short Sales:

El Dorado County

Placer County

Sacramento County

Now that my categories have no place on this blog I’m going to focus on little towns and cities close to Sacramento. Lately I have met quite a few people who like Sacramento but would prefer to live a little distance away from it. They work in Sacramento, so they prefer the place to be within driving distance, but they also like the rural look of the outlying areas. The acreage is also preferred.

Newcastle is one such city. Just 30 minutes from downtown Sacramento on Highway I-80, it has breathtaking views and rolling hills. At an elevation of just over 1000 feet, it is slightly cooler than Sacramento.

That being said, the median value of homes in Newcastle are much higher than those in Sacramento. 34 homes sold last year for a median value of $641,000 after an average 86 days on the market. This year (so far) 29 homes have sold for a median value of $672,000 - an indication that the market slump really is relative to certain areas and certain price ranges. Newcastle saw an appreciation of 4.8% in its prices.

9 more homeowners have accepted offers on their homes. But if you’re looking to move to Newcastle, there are 44 homes still to choose from between $259,900 and $4,600,000. In this market, you can also find some great discounts on REOs - bank owned properties.

This August, eight-six condos sold in Sacramento County, down 4.4% from last year’s volume of 90 units. The average price of condos sold in August was $227,889, down 5.5% from last year’s average of $241,267. On a sold price per square foot basis, however, the drop was a much more bubbler-friendly 16.2%. Last August’s average condo was 1098 square feet in size and sold for $219.73. This year, on average the size was 1238 square feet and the sold price average was 189.36 per square foot. The median price is down 8.8% from August to August, from $225,000 last August to $206,000 this August.

Interestingly enough, however, some of the changes in the condo market are in a positive direction. The expired to sold ratio is down, albeit slightly and still well within the “buyers’ market” range, from 102.2% last year to 94.2% this year. Average days on market however have dropped 16.7%, form 90 days last year to 75 days this year.

Anecdotally, we’ve noticed some really dramatic discounts in condos we’ve been showing recently, especially among short sales and foreclosures.

Twenty-four of the eighty-one units that sold (27.9%) in August were bank owned. There are 11.4 months of unsold inventory, with 902 units active and 79 units per month selling, on average, over the past year.

I just finished upgrading to Wordpress 2.3.  It went off pretty smoothly, though I did run into one problem that turned out to be pretty well documented.  I installed the patch that Ryan responded with there and it worked like a champ.

Of course the big reason for upgrading to 2.3 is to get native tag support.  So naturally I had to install a tag cloud.  Now I feel like I need to go back and tag the last thirty or so posts so the poor cloud doesn’t look so pathetic.

In a moment we’ll see if Windows Live Writer supports tagging correctly.

Just When Purva Thought It Was Safe To Talk About Categories

Now it turns out we have categories, which should have a small set of things, and tags, which should be a much bigger set of everything we’re about.

But here’s the rub — what goes where?

I have to find that nice article I saw recently about that very thing and give it some thought.

PlOur seller’s just reduced the price over 10% on this beautiful home on almost four acres in Placerville.  You must see inside this home to appreciate it — model quality.  Seller is moving out of state and wants it SOLD, so give us a call at (530) 672-9160 for more information or a personalized showing.

Beautiful Home Among Stately Pines — Price Reduced

Location: Pleasant Valley

This beautiful manufactured home on peaceful acreage shows better than many “stick built” homes we’ve seen. Plenty of room for a growing family or for vacation home with 1950 square feet and four bedrooms. Back yard features pool, a seasonal creek, and a large deck, with low maintenance landscaping and the smell of pines. Open floor plan with bright and lovely kitchen and a pantry. Large master bedroom with walk-in closet. Minutes from downtown and highway 50. Don’t miss this one!

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John Lockwood

(530) 672-9160

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Pricing

Asking Price: $389,000.00

Property Location

3400 Fort Jim Road
Placerville, CA 95667
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Features

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2

Parking: Ample

Year Built: 1999

Lot Size: 3.856

Garage Size: None

School District: Placerville Union

Square Footage: 1950

Agent Name: John Lockwood

Broker: Elite Properties

MLS #: 70087796

Attributes

Appliances

Range/Oven

Dishwasher

Sink Disposal

Satellite

Interior Amenities

Kitchen Island

Wood Stove

Pantry

Exterior Amenities

Swimming Pool

Secluded setting

Large Front and Rear Decks

Low Maintenance Landscaping

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VFLYER ID: 1243384

Okay now, who doesn’t know South Lake Tahoe? A romantic getaway year round, it might be the place you decide you actually want to own a home! Although we all feel so disappointed with the latest news of the fires around the area, South Lake Tahoe is a great place to own a second or vacation home. If you don’t visit as often as you would like, you can always get a vacation rental company to take care of the place for you.

Just a two and a half hour drive from Sacramento, the median home here sold for $580,000. That being said, this is not a very dynamic market since only eight homes sold last year. This year, just two homes have sold for a median price of $362,500 and two more are pending sale.

There are thirteen homes to choose from ranging from $199,000 (yes, really!) to $1,099,000.

The National Association of Realtors finally answered this question for frustrated sellers. In fact the number one answer has not changed since 2004 - it’s central air.

The second thing rated most important by home buyers is an oversized garage. In 2004 it used to be a walk in closet in the master suite.

The last few on the list are: Backyard, Cable/Satellite TV ready, High-speed internet access, Separate showers in the main bath, a patio and fencing around the home.

In fact, the majority of buyers are willing to pay a premium for the walk-in closet, hardwood floors, and granite countertops. Sellers, are you listening?

Mitch Argon, who was nice enough to refer two of the nicest clients you could hope to work with lately to us earlier in the year, dropped me a note recently to tell me about his new web site about Reno Real Estate.

Now usually, you don’t want your Realtor® moonlighting as a fry cook or rodeo rider or what have you, but there are a few exceptions. With this in mind, one of the neat things about Mitch is that he also runs a moving company, so hey presto, instant free moving services when you buy or sell a home with Mitch. I don’t know if you’ve priced those services lately, but depending on where you’re moving that can be a huge savings.

Mitch is a really good guy and a true professional, so if you’re planning a move to Reno, you should definitely check his site out and give him a call! Naturally his site features registration free search, so give it a spin.

Like most greater Sacramento markets, Placer County has had its share of the reversal of fortunes of 2005-2007 (or make that 2005 to 2000-when?), but August’s numbers are less dramatic than others we’ve seen. The average home sold for $518,108 in August, or 96.4% of the average list price of $537,549. This year’s average home was 7.1% bigger than last year’s, so while the average sale price dropped only 0.6% from last year’s average of $521,393, the sold price per square foot dropped 7.2%, from $249.47 last year to $231.50 this year. Likewise the median price fell 8.4% from year to year, from $453,000 last year to $415,000 this year. This compares favorably to a 12.2% drop for Sacramento County from August to August, and 14.8% for El Dorado County during the same period.

Last year, of 338 homes sold, none of them were REOs (bank owned foreclosures). This year, of 275 sold homes, 40 (12.0%) were REOs. This is a huge jump in absolute terms, of course, but it is approximately similar to El Dorado County’s 11.6% REO sale rate, and much lower than Sacramento County, in which fully a quarter (25.3%) of August’s sales were bank owned.

Approximately 339 homes have sold per month over the past year, on average. There are 3242 active listings in Placer County currently, putting the unsold inventory figure at 9.7%.

Don’t forget to come and visit our beautiful listing in Placerville, being held open TODAY (Sunday, September 23rd) from 1PM to 4PM. The address again is 3400 Fort Jim Road, Placerville (map). This is a really beautiful 4 bedroom home with a pool on almost four quite, pine-studded acres.

Please join us and check out this wonderful home.  Check out the video and the online flier.

Note:  We’ll have free lists of other homes being held open in Western El Dorado County this Sunday, so come and stop by if you’re checking out the open houses this weekend.

One of the things we hear from sellers that is a concern is that their home get the most exposure possible.  Naturally they want the best value for their dollar, so they want to see their home get good exposure.

This evening I wrote to a seller about her home which she listed with us in the middle of August.  I was able to show her who had seen which ads since then.

Here is an excerpt of the email I sent to her (of course the “you” in this excerpt refers to that seller):

Number of times agents viewed your home in MLS:  48
Number of times the photo of your home was loaded from our main web site:  3,059  (You could probably call it 5,000 from all our sites).  These numbers tend to be high because we feature it on our home page, and these pages get lots of traffic.
Views of your movie on our main web site:  399
Views of your movie on Youtube:  52
Views of your movie on Yahoo Video:  39
Views of your online flyer [at http://eliteproperties.vflyer.com]:  in August approximately 705.  In September, so far, approximately 445.
Page views on Realtor.com:  In August 34, In September 56.

Of course, with any listing, you need to get the price right.  In fact, I honestly think that the role of advertising is more of a case of ruling things out than making a sale.  Price a home at 200% of market value, and your agent couldn’t sell it if he ran an ad on Superbowl Sunday.

Having said that, once you get the price at 100% of market value, you don’t want an agent who drops the ball when it comes to marketing.

We don’t.

The number of foreclosures in Sacramento has been the subject of many articles and a great deal of press attention. I thought I’d take a look at a few of the areas that are experiencing a high number of foreclosures to get a feel for how many foreclosures are currently active and what sort of discount they represent for buyers.

With this in mind, I focused my research on the three areas that are showing highest numbers in the Multiple Listing Service (raw numbers, not percentages) of bank owned properties in Sacramento County. These areas the Franklin Blvd / Freeport area (95823 — see zip code map), Sacramento Florin 95828 (map), and Elk Grove 95758 (Map). In fact, when you look at the map, you can see that the choice of calling these “three areas” or “one area” is pretty arbitrary, since they roughly border one another.

The Boring News — How Many Are There?

Let’s take them as one area of Sacramento County that’s high in foreclosures first. In these three high foreclosure areas, the number of active listings that are bank owned, is 17% of the total. At the same time, 11% of the total listings are short sales — properties where the seller’s proceeds from the sale do not cover the cost of repaying the loan. So for both types of “distressed” properties, we come up with a figure of 28%. Once again, the Sacramento Bee’s summary claim that for every two homes sold, one is in foreclosure seems to overstate the case. (I critiqued those numbers from another angle here). However, to give the bee their due, here are possible reasons for the discrepancy:

• The Bee was reporting on August foreclosures and sales only, whereas my current report concerns active listings that have accumulated over some time.
• As we’ve shown earlier in one market, foreclosures outsell non-foreclosures. This isn’t hard to understand — they’re cheaper. This being the case, you’d expect the “absorption rate” for short sale and REOs to be faster than for non-distressed sales.

The Interesting News — How Much Money Can You Save?

Of course, the debate about how many foreclosures there are generates a lot of heat, but not much light. A much more interesting question is, as always: “What’s in it for me?”

If you’re a buyer, plenty!

The following numbers are all expressed in list price per square foot.

In the Franklin Blvd area (95823), short sales are presently discounted 9.2% from their non-distressed counterparts. Bank owned properties are even better, discounted an average of 15.5%. In Elk Grove (95758), the average discount for a short sale is 11.9%, while for an REO it’s 17.1%. The Florin area boasts some of the best numbers of all in this respect. Short sales are discounted 12.4%, while the average foreclosure is discounted a tasty 18.3%! If you’re willing to put up with doing whatever repairs are needed yourself, that difference is huge, and it means the difference between purchasing something at roughly $320,000 and roughly $260,000. $60,000 buys a lot of carpet and paint!

Vicki Agregado-Babcock and I will be holding our Fort Jim listing open this weekend.

Please come to our Open House this Sunday, September 23, at 1:00PM to 4:00 PM for our beautiful listing at 3400 Fort Jim Road, Placerville.

For the map, click here.

The California Association of Realtors® now has a Second Life Office.

This just proves what was proven in 1849 — you make more money selling shovels and pans to people prospecting for gold than you do prospecting for gold.

Nerds.  Honestly. 

All your dues are belong to us.

Recently I’ve been reworking the foreclosure area of the web site and — as promised earlier — I’ve added a page of links where you can browse Sacramento Short Sale Listings. If you’re unfamiliar with Short Sales, what these are are sales where the sellers are “short” in the sense of not having enough cash to sell, pay closing costs, and pay off the lender(s) they owe. So what happens is that you have to get approval from the bank, a process which is fairly time consuming.

That said, there are some bargains to be had in short sales, but (as we recently showed for Antelope and we’ll examine further in a future article), on average the discounts are better on bank owned properties.

Since we have this fabulous listing in Foresthill, I thought writing a little bit about living there might help you decide about moving there, or buying it as a second home. At 3225 feet above sea level, it definitely qualifies! A mere 54 miles from Sacramento, it gets between 5 - 10 inches of snow between December and March.

If you like a quiet place to run away to for the weekend, this might be the place for you! In the year 2000, only 1,791 residents were recorded in this paradise.

In terms of the real estate market here, sales have been slow, but have not ground to a halt as in some other places. Compared with last year’s 46 sold homes, we have for the year 2007, 37 sold single family residences. 5 more are pending sale and there are still 69 homes you can look at.

Our listing at 5166 Cold Springs Drive is set at the median asking price of Foresthill at $495,000 but well below the average asking price of $636,770.

We have two pieces of news about Susan Norris’s beautiful listing in Foresthill.

First, the price has been reduced to $495,000.

Secondly, Susan accompanied me to preview this listing today and take some photos, and so I can now attest that this home is every bit as gorgeous in person as it is in the photos. We were able to take a lot more pictures, some of which we’ve worked into a video slide show. If you’re in the market for an immaculate, 3/4 bedroom on almost an acre, we urge you to take a look at this one. The seller has kept this in immaculate condition.

We’ve also created a web site for the listing, http://www.5166ColdSpringsDrive.com.

Breaking news… there had been a lot of talk about this lately. And it’s finally happened.

Read about it here.

Antelope’s real estate market is one where a large number of short sales and foreclosures are driving prices down. Our foreclosure list puts Antelope at number six in our unfortunate hit parade of high foreclosure areas. Between them, short sales and foreclosures make up slightly more than half of the available inventory in Antelope. There are 500 active listings in Antelope at present, of which 103 (20.6%) are bank owned, and 150 (30%) are short sales.

In August, the average home sold in Antelope fetched $302,588, 18.3% less than last year’s average of $370,212. Some of that difference was size related, with this year’s home coming in 5.5% smaller. The average sold price per square foot dropped somewhat less, therefore, 13.5%, from $215.24 last August to $186.09 this August. The median price was down 16.9%, from $361,200 last year to $300,000 this year. Units sold were down from last year’s 62 units to 46 units this year, a 25.8% drop.

Interestingly, though short sales in inventory outnumber bank owned properties, when you look at what sold, the numbers are reversed. Though bank owned properties (REOs) make up 20.6% of the inventory currently, they represent 32.6% of the sales in August. Conversely, short sales make up 30% of active inventory, yet accounted for only 10.9% of the sales in August.

This difference is not surprising given the price discrepancy. Looking at the current list price in Antelope, homes that aren’t short sales or foreclosures average $200.41 per square foot, while short sales are priced 9% less at 182.42 per square foot. REOs are priced even lower, 15.0% less, at $170.43 per square foot. In addition, most agents probably feel that REO sales are a bit less problematic, so to the (limited) extent that buyer choices reflect our opinions, that may have something to do with this as well.

To view current REO properties in Antelope, click here. We do not yet have short sale listings available yet directly on our web site (except mixed in with other listings), however please feel free to contact us if you’re interested in listings from this (or any other) custom search. To view all Antelope listings, click here. We’ll have short sale listings coming soon and will post links when they’re up.

Every so often I go hunt for a picture of old Herb Tarlek, or should I say a picture of actor Frank Bonner playing Herb Tarlek, WKRP’s slick but sleazy salesman.

I usually think of old Herb when someone’s accused me of being like him, either personally (which doesn’t happen much), or as a member of the Realtor® community (which happens all the time).

Here’s the accusation:

“Western Civilization is on the verge of collapse. The sky is falling. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are upon us. We’re on the verge of a bloodbath. Of course, if you’re a Realtor®, any time’s a good time to buy a house.“

Whether that’s true of any given Realtor® is a function of what their strengths are as a salesperson. Realtors® who are aggressive objection handlers might be a good fit for that accusation, but I tend to be fairly laid back in that regard.

My strong suit in sales is not objection handling, but prospecting. That being the case, I don’t much care if someone is not buying a house, because to me that’s hardly the point. The point for me is not that everybody needs to buy a house, but that as many people as possible who want to buy or sell one find me or an Elite Properties agent to do it.

In fact, come to think of it, whether or not you’re buying a house is not an objection handling matter. It’s a qualifying matter. If you’re not buying a house, that’s great, but then as a broker, my job is not to talk you into it, my job is to go talk to someone who is qualified. That is to say, someone who is “qualified” in the more general sales sense of having DNA (Desire, Need, Ability), not qualified in the loan sense, which simply deals with “Ability”.

On the one hand, I certainly don’t mean to suggest that you have to be buying / selling right away to start a conversation. I do have other interests. If I only talked to people who are buying or selling, I’d have a boring life, because even among people who own already, only one in eight is moving in a given year. People don’t eat all day long, and they can eat at many different restaurants, but one can still own a thriving dining establishment nevertheless.

On the other hand, I have a feeling that people who hang around real estate blogs saying things like “if you’re a Realtor®, any time’s a good time to buy a house” want this accusation to be true, because it’s the basis for the adversarial relationship they imagine they have with us. And I can’t imagine how lonely you have to be before your idea of a social good time is trolling for a guy who in your broken heart of hearts you think is Herb Tarlek.

If you’re not buying a house, that’s great. You’re in the majority. I congratulate you.

So you’re here…why?

Have you considered taking up ballroom dancing?

Whenever I’m out having lunch and pass by one of those Sacramento Bee Paper boxes I like to have a peek over and see if it’s worth spending 50 cents to see what disaster has befallen me lately.  Today I glanced over and saw that foreclosures are gaining on sales.  (Here’s the online version if you want to take a look.)

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, or anything else published about real estate in the area for the last nine months or so, this news about foreclosures should come as no surprise.  Bank owned properties are becoming enough of a phenomenon that I recently published a list of Sacramento County foreclosures so we could keep up.

The Bee’s article begins:

It’s come to this:  For roughly every two homes sold in August in the capital region, one house went into foreclosure, according to the newest sales statistics released Thursday.

The Bee’s article goes on with a bit of drama balanced with a discussion of the opportunities that buyers are finding in this market, such as lowered interest rates now compared to June.

Not bad overall.

I’ve posted similar numbers here, but it strikes me that when you compare the number of sales to the number of foreclosures, (as I’ve done as well) you arrive at a pretty scary picture, but one that ignores the fact that even in the best of times, only a fraction of the homes in any neighborhood are on the market.  Based on the quote above, it’s incorrect to say that one in 3 homes in Sacramento County is in foreclosure.

What’s the real ratio?

To get an idea, let’s focus exclusively on single family homes for a moment.  According to the 2006 Sacramento County General Plan, in 2006 there were 149,368 single family homes in Sacramento County.  In 2005, 21,103 single family homes sold through the MLS in the county.  In 2006, the number was down to 13,597.  Averaging those two years, we get 17,350, which is 11.62% of the 149,368 homes.  (Or put another way, a home turns over on average every 8.6 years).

The number of foreclosures is rising every month, but let’s take stock of where we are now, as of September 14, 2007.  How many unsold, foreclosed single family homes are inventory right now?  The answer the MLS gives is 1,724 for bank-owned single family homes in Sacramento County.  Dividing our 1,724 bank owned single family homes by our total number, 149,368, gives us 1.15%

Now to be sure, the number of foreclosures is climbing every month, and a lot of people are losing their homes as a result of either overextending themselves, predatory lending, or other factors, so I don’t want to minimize the problem.  But here’s how the opening paragraph above could be rewritten:

It’s come to this:  For roughly every single-family home owned by the bank in Sacramento County, eighty-six homes aren’t.

Of course, you’d never get dummies like me to shell fifty cents to read a horror story like that.  You call that scary?

I was informed of this bad news today on my Profile on Youtube:

Damn. How did they find out?

They must have seen the video of me.

I pasted that image in there, by the way. The new Live Writer is da Bomb!

If you like long walks with the leaves changing colors and a quiet town to hide in away from the busy Sacramento area, Cool might be just the place for your vacation home. On historic Highway 49, bordering a state park, Cool is a town of some 2500 residents and homes with acreage. At an elevation of just 1500 ft above sea level, the temperatures are a little Cool-er than Sacramento.

Median prices this year have Cool-ed (all right, I’ll stop!) from $454,000 last year to $385,000 so far this year. Only 34 homes have sold compared to 77 last year.

There are 59 homes currently available for sale from a low of $249,000 to $1,590,000.