Posted: October 28, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bank owned home sales, REO sales, Richard Kitowski, Sacramento real estate, total sales 2009 Leave a comment »
In May of 2008 the Sacramento Assn of Realtors started showing the number of bank owned home sales as a part of the total home sales for Sacramento County and the City of West Sacramento. The May, 2008 statistical report showed that there were 1084 (65.5%) REO out of the total of 1654 single family home sales. From May through August the REO sales were running about 66% to 69% of the total for any given month. Beginning in September of 2008 the REO sales for the first time topped 70% and stayed in the 70% plus category through December 2008.
The graph shows what is happening in 2009. In January the REO were 75.7% of the total closed sales. In February the REO closed sales were 74.3%, March 70.5% and they are declining as a percentage of the total each month through September when the REO sales are 45.4% of the total. Is this a trend that will continue? Some people are saying that the banks are withholding homes to avoid flooding the market . The monthly statistics tell the accurate story. Bank owned homes in our region are becoming a smaller part of the total market. Will this trend continue? Time will tell.
Beginning in June 2009 the Sacramento Board of Realtors starting publishing the number of short sale closings as a part of the whole. In June of 2009 short sales were 16.6% of the total closed sales. In September 2009 short sales were 19.3% of the total closings. Is this a trend?? Watching the numbers will provide the answers.
Using graphs is a very effective way to tell a story quickly, so we are now using them as a visual aid to show what is happening in our marketplace.
Sacramento Market Report for September, 2009
Posted: October 13, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: closed sales, market report, median home price, median sales price, pending sales, REO sales, residential real estate, Richard Kitowski, Sacramento County, Sacramento real estate, short sales, stepseachday.com Leave a comment »There were 1,631 closed single family home sales for the month of September, 2009. This is down from 1,683 home sales for the month of August. For September, REO sales were 45.4% (741), short sales 19.3%(314) and conventional sales at 35.3%(576).
The median home price for Sacramento County decreased to $183,000 from $190,000 in August. September median at $183,000 is 6.1% below the September median of 2008 at $194,950.
The market seems very stable in terms of closed sales and pending sales vs. new listings. There were 1,794 new single family homes listings published for September. Compare this with the number of homes that went into escrow at 1,679 and closed sales of 1,631. Based on current rate of homes going into pending sale there is about a 3.2 month supply of homes for sale.
I will have a graph posed in the next couple of days showing the number of sales each month for Sacramento County vs. the number of homes that went into escrow.
Please email if you have any questions, comments or would like additional information on Sacramento real estate.
Richard Kitowski
Please visit us at: stepseachday.com
Commodity to House to Home
Posted: October 10, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: home is not a commodity, house to home Leave a comment »Over the past several years it seems that a house may have been looked at more as a commodity than a home. I looked up the meaning of commodity and it was pretty much what I thought . . . a product that is the same no matter where it is located. Copper is copper. Gold is gold, wood is wood and so on. Copper in England is the same as copper in California. The prices of these commodities will fluctuate from day to day because of supply and demand.
A house is constructed from various commodities and they all add up to the finished product. Turning the house into a home becomes very personal. Some homeowners may never call their house a home but I believe that most homeowners really do value what it means to live in their home and their definition of home is unique to them.
There was a time here in Sacramento, CA when people would look at the value of their home like they would a certain stock or a commodity. Almost like day trading, but the housing may be called monthly trading. How much did my home go up in value last month? They would actually track value increases. Now we are tracking value decreases. It seems to me that we are nearing a market bottom where home prices will stabilize and remain that way for some years to come. Maybe people will be purchasing a house primarily as a place to live for a number of enjoyable years and not as an investment, expecting unrealistic gains in value. When we have a stable housing market with normal economic conditions homes will appreciate over time. The appreciation will be more in some areas than others based on supply and demand. Getting back to good, solid, basic values where homeowners develop equity from years of ownership and well thought out improvements will be a huge contributor to a stable economy and lifestyle.
Defining the meaning of home will be different for each individual and I think that all of the meanings will be relevant. We will receive from our home what we put into it. For me, my home is like a sanctuary, it is my defined space. We should all appreciate the basic benefits of homeownership . . . the best benefit being a place to live and to call home.
Richard Kitowski
Sacramento County Residential Market Report for August 2009
Posted: October 9, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bank owned sales, median home price, number of homes sold, residential real estate, Sacramento Leave a comment »This report is a little late but the information is relevant. The median sales price for homes sold/closed in Sacramento County changed from $180,000 in July to $190,000 in August. This is an increase of 5.6%.
Many factors affect the median home sales price but fewer bank-owned sales is probably the biggest single factor. Many bank sales are below the existing median home price and usually have a downward affect on this measurement. The bank sales have decreased slightly from the previous months and short sales and conventional sales have increased. In August, there were 801 bank sales, down from 908 in July.
The number of homes that sold/closed in August was lower than July. In July there were 1,848 closed sales and in August there were 1,683. One has to look at this data over a period of time to detect any trends. In the next week I plan to post a graph showing the number of closed sales in Sacramento county from January 2009 through September. This will be interesting because a graph can tell a quick story as to how the market is doing.
One other interesting statistic, 95.1% of the homes sold/closed in August were priced under $400,000. What price range had the highest number of sales? $200,000 to $249,999, which accounted for 314 sales or 18.7% of the total.
