Carolyn Gjerde-Tu's Blog: Sacramento Real Estate

I've talked about the higher end Sacramento market before.  Due to all of the foreclosures (many of them at the entry level part of the market) there are fewer move up buyers which has created a strong buyers market at the upper end.  Not to paint too grim a picture but take a look at the following trendgraphix facts and trends report for Sacramento County for homes priced over $750,000.

The light green bar represents active listings, red line are pending sales and dark green are closed sales.  There are less than half the number of pending sales in October 2008 than there was in October 2007.  Another way to look at this data is months of inventory:

While most people would look at these numbers and see only negatives, I see…

What does lower inventory really mean.

Recently the Sacramento Bee ran a front page story asking the question "Is worst over for Sacramento's housing market?" 

It is an interesting question, available inventory has  been going down to a more manageable number and home sales have risen over the past few months to match at least in volume numbers seen in 2005. Buyers have not been hesitant to act quickly to buy whatever properties appear to be a good deal.  For the majority of the Sacramento region that has meant distressed properties, short sales and REO/Bank Foreclosures. 

One reason for the decrease in inventory over the past few months is due to banks/mortgage holders holding off on foreclosure proceedings due to new legislation that was passed in…

Sacramento Real Estate has been hit harder than many other parts of the country  with distressed properties.  Bank owned/foreclosed homes and short sales are currently  the majority of actual closed sales throughout the region.  Buyers are looking for bargains and they are more likely to find them in distressed properties than from a typical seller.

Sometimes buyers want to look specifically for short sales.  This might happen because in certain price ranges there is stiff competition and there are typically fewer people searching for short sales.

A short sale is defined as a home offered for sale where the seller owes the mortgage holders more than what the house is worth.  A seller putting their house up for sale as a short sale may or may not be in…

The Sacramento market has been very active in the entry-level price ranges.  However there still are buyers looking for higher end homes. From townhomes, newly built green design, elegant yet understated brick bungalows to large modern built newly constructed homes.  Sacramento has a wide range of choices when it comes to housing.

 Neighborhoods with higher-end homes include, Land Park, East Sacramento, Midtown Sacramento and Sierra Oaks.

Sacramento Housing Market above $450,000

• 315 homes for sale
• $5,400,000 max list price
• Most expensive house is 11,727 square feet on 1.7 acres
• Median list price is $649,000
• 31 homes sold for over $450,000 in October
• Most expensive home that sold in October $1,125,000
• Median sales…

It is no secret that with distressed properties becoming the overwhelming number of listings in the greater Sacramento Region that this has caused an increase in potential MLS violations as many of the agents are from out of the area and are not really versed in the actual MLS rules.

Most of these violations could be avoided if out of area agents just read through the regulations. Metrolist has a forty page document  available on their website, the same website used to upload listings to the MLS system.

The brokerage I work for has identified the six most common MLS rules and the fines associated with each. Note fines were current as of 5/08.

• Placing a non Metrolist keybox on the listing. This is one of the most common violations that I see.  Out…