Armed with the knowledge of recent results and current market conditions can make you a better buyer and a more savvy seller of real estate in the Davis  and Woodland California markets. By studying the market, a buyer will be able to "buy right" and a seller will have a more realistic expectation of how long it may take to sell their home in todays real estate market. Toward that end, I supply my readers with recent market results and current conditions on a regular basis. Here is the January 2008 update:    

December 2007 Results

DAVIS (Single Family Homes)

• 18 Homes Sold
• Median Price =  $547,500
• Average Days on Market = 69
• Percent of Asking Price Received  = 95%
• Lowest Priced Home = $290,000
• Highest Priced Home =…

Here is a quick comparison of how the real estate markets in Davis and Woodland, California fared in 2007 versus the year end totals for 2006.  First, let's look at Davis:

  DAVIS,California                   2006 2007   Change           Number of Homes Sold 531 507   -4.50%     …

Every day and every night lately, we are bombarded by media stories about how terrible the real estate market is, and how these bad days are going to last for years to come. While there are problems associated with the large inventory of homes on the market, and many foreclosures occurring in many markets around the country, sometimes we need to balance the sensational bad news with some reasoned analysis.

In my email, I received the text of a speech given last month by Gary Watts, a real estate economist. Thank you to my friends over at the local office of Fidelity Title for forwarding this information to me. I wanted to post the text of it here, because it provides some detailed insight as to why the Northern California real estate markets may not be as…

August 2007, New Home Sales and Existing Home Sales figures differ.

Existing Home sales in Yolo County remain worse than sluggish, but prices seem to be holding steady. While August saw a drop of almost 35% in the number of existing homes sold, the median price fell just 1% from where it was a year ago. Good news for homeowners in the area.

New Construction - On the other hand, the number of new homes sold in August fell just 13% from last year and was actually up substantially from the low in July. This was no doubt spurred by the price cuts and promotional offers made by new home builders with excess inventory. While the number of sales was down 13%, the median price for new homes was also down down 13%.

My own experience is that buyers are in…

April 2007 sales remain slow, but prices holding firm for existing homes

The housing figures for Yolo County are skewed by two things. First, developers are cutting their prices on new homes in order to get rid of inventory, so the median price of new homes sold in April dropped 12.5%. This is balanced by an actual increase in the median price of existing homes sold, which went up 4.2% in April, over prices a year ago. When combined this works out to a drop in the median price of just 1.7% year-over-year in Yolo County for all homes sold.

Second, three areas provide the lions share of sales in Yolo County; Davis, West Sacramento and Woodland. West Sacramento experienced fast growth in the first half of the decade, including significant…

Spring Weather has Brought out the Buyers!

Below are some current statistics which reflect the health of the housing market in Yolo County and Sacramento County. Information includes the number of homes sold year-over-year and the median price of homes sold year-over-year.

The good news is that we seem to have hit  a price bottom in January, February  and March 2007, as the median price in Yolo County has remained almost flat for those three months.

The number of homes sold is down year-over-year, but was up nicely in March, almost doubling the total from February.

My personal eperience is that the number of buyers in the Davis market has again increased, as the first two weeks of April have been my busiest of the year in regards to the number of…

Below are some current statistics which reflect the health of the housing market in Davis, Yolo County, and Sacramento County. Information includes the number of homes sold year-over-year and the median price of homes sold year-over-year. As you can see, real estate market activity in Yolo County has slowed in the last 12 months, and the glut of homes on the market in 2006 caused prices to slip.

The good news is that we seem to have hit bottom in December and January. February activity was slow year-over-year, but was sightly improved over the December and January months.

My own experience is that buyers have come out again and activity is brisk. The glut of homes for sale has dried up, either by sellers taking homes off the market, or by homes being…