Greater Sacramento Needs More Homes to Sell

Potential home sellers in Greater Sacramento real estate market face a golden opportunity to make their move in 2017. Buyers are snapping up homes at a rapid pace and seeing records lows for available inventory in all price points. This market information was presented by Lyon Real Estate based upon data provided by Trendgraphix Inc., a Sacramento-based reporting company.

Market-wide, inventory at the end of February was down to 2,554 homes active and available for sale. This number was 20 percent lower than one year ago and 37 percent lower than February of 2015. There is currently less than one month of inventory below $350,000 across the entire region. The current move up market — homes priced between $350,000 and $750,000 — isn’t much better, with only 1.3 months of inventory. Homes priced above $750,000 have fluctuated between 5-7 months of stock in this hot market era but dropped to 4 months by the end of February.

The number of properties available for sale however, is only one metric in the equation. The current rate of new pending sales is the other and currently, this is significant. Below $350,000, February saw 972 new pending sales, an 11 percent increase in sales compared to January. This was a 21 percent decrease compared to February of 2016, which is clearly due to the lack of available listings. The move-up market placed 1,025 homes into escrow last month which represented a 22 percent increase compared to January and a 9 percent increase versus February 2016.

Properties above $750,000 across the region have joined the race as last month there were 121 new pending sales. This was more than double the number posted in January and 17 percent greater than February of last year. It was also the highest count since July.

All of these factors helped push the median price for February to $356,000, the highest since November. The median rested at $330,000 last year at this time and $320,000 in February of 2015.

“You probably have heard this a number of times,” says Pat Shea, president of Lyon Real Estate, “but right now is absolutely the best time for sellers to place their homes on the market. The beauty of spring is upon us and the Greater Sacramento Real Estate market is in full bloom. You will get your highest and best contract while making your move more swiftly and easily.”

About TrendGraphix, Inc.

TrendGraphix, Inc. is a real estate reporting company based in Sacramento that uses local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data to provide highly-visual market statistical graphs to real estate brokers, agents, and MLS/Realtor associations across the country. TrendGraphix’s programs are currently used by tens of thousands of agents in more than 250 brokerages in 48 states. For more information about TrendGraphix, visit www.trendgraphix.com.