Sacramento Real Estate Blog

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2007 was a year of decreasing real estate prices throughout the greater Sacramento area, with homes in Folsom retaining their value better than the rest of the county, especially later in the year.  For 2007 overall, the median sale price in Folsom was $450,000, down 7.2% from 2006’s median of $485,000.  811 units sold in Folsom in 2007 through the MLS, at an average sale price of $490,588, down 5.3% from 2006’s average of $485,000.  In both years, homes sold for more than 97% of list price.  In Folsom, sold price per square foot fell 8.4% from year to year, and only 8.9% from December to December.  In contrast, Sacramento County’s sold price per square foot fell 11.7% for the whole year 2006-2007, and a much more substantial 21.8% from December to December.

In other words, Folsom’s prices have not dropped as rapidly as in Sacramento County as a whole, and the trend does not seem to be accelerating as it is in other areas.  The number of short sales and foreclosures taken together are also much lower in Folsom than county-wide averages.  Short sales account for 17.1% of active inventory, and REOs only make up 5.8%, for an overall figure of 22.9% — compared to 55.7% for Sacramento County overall.

The other good news in Folsom is continuing low inventory, 5.1 months as of this writing.  In Sacramento County overall, the inventory numbers are more than twice as high at 10.4 months.  Six months is traditionally the cutoff beyond which we’re said to be in a “buyers’ market”, so one can consider Folsom to be in a bit more of a seller’s market than Sacramento County generally.

Folsom’s real estate market is relatively strong compared to other areas in Sacramento, but is still undergoing some price decline along with high inventory. Bucking the usual trend, November was a good month in Folsom in terms of unit sales. Sixty-four units sold in November, 16.4% more than last year’s 55 units.

The average home sold in Folsom this November for $474,148, down 8.6% from last November’s average of $518,627. Sold price per square foot fell 9.9%, from $239.00 last November to $215.33 this November. Meanwhile the median sale price fell from $482,500 last November to $436,500 this November.

Compared to Sacramento County as a whole, Folsom has a relatively low number of short sales and foreclosures in inventory, with the two categories accounting for just over one fifth of active inventory (20.4%). The expired to sold ratio and the average days on market both fell from November to November.

Our cavalcade of October market data continues now as we look at the real estate market for Folsom for October 2007.  The big story for Folsom in October was the huge difference in unit volume from October 2006 to October 2007.  Last year 84 units sold in Folsom, while this year the number was only 46, a 45.2% drop in volume.

The average home sold in Folsom in October for $448,433, down 13.9% from last year’s average of $520,638.  On average, however, this year’s home was somewhat smaller than last year.  As a result, sold price per square foot dropped less dramatically.  Last October it was $241.60, whereas this October it’s $217.16, a 10.1% drop.  The median selling price of a home in Folsom fell 8.8% during this period, from $465,424 last October to $424,500 this October.

The number of foreclosures is fairly low in Folsom compared to other areas in Sacramento County, with five bank owned properties selling in October and making up 10.9% of the sales.  In active inventory, there are 28 bank owned properties out of a total of 422 homes, or 6.6%.

If unit volume was down in October (and yes, it was), you can’t prove this by looking at inventory numbers.  Inventory is 6.2 months in Folsom, which in the seller’s market side of the ledger, but only barely.

Looking at the real estate market for Folsom in August, we find a market that’s somewhat stronger in many respects than Sacramento County as a whole. I expect to see Folsom being one of the first Sacramento County markets to recover from the downturn we’re currently experiencing, but of course, that’s a “foreward looking statement”, which is how Wall Street says “guess.”

On to the numbers. Sixty homes sold in Folsom in August, down 13% from last year’s volume of 69 sold homes. The average home sold in Folsom for $478,254, down some 7.1% from last year’s average of $514,805. This year’s home being slightly bigger than last year, the average sold price per square foot in Folsom dropped marginally more, 8.5%, from $248.10 last year to $227.09 this year. The median price in Folsom dropped 11.7% from August to August, from $497,500 last year to $439,450 last year.

Compared to Sacramento County as a whole, Folsom sellers are competing with a fairly low percentage of bank owned homes. 6.7% of the homes that sold in August of 2007 were bank owned (REO), compared with 0% (no bank owned sold) in August of 2006. In inventory, bank owned homes make up 5.3% of the unsold homes, with 23 REOs to a total of 436 active homes for sale. Inventory is relatively low at just under six months.