Erin Attardi's Blog

I must admit that Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays...the weather is usually great, fireworks are spectacular, and neighborhoods seem to come together with some neat community events. Here are a few July 4th you might enjoy this year in 2009;

-5th Annual Elk Grove Run for Independence; 10k run/walk in Elk Grove at Elk Grove Regional Park starting at 8am on July 4th. All funds raised benefit the Elk Grove Food Bank.

-25th Annual Rancho Cordova 4th of July Celebration; all kinds of family fun activities including a parade, pony rides, carnival midway, live music, fireworks and more! Starts at 11am at Hagan Park in Rancho Cordova on Friday, July 3rd - July 4th.

-City of Citrus Heights July 4th Extravaganzaa; live music, carnival rides, and 3-D fireworks display! Starts at 7:30pm on July 4th at the Sunrise Marketplace in Citrus Heights. Funds raised benefit the Mesa Verde Sober Graduation fund.

-50th Annual City of Galt Festival; live music, petting zoo, slot car racing, fireworks display, and more! Starts at 5pm on July 3rd - July 5th at Caroline Park in Galt. Funds raised benefit multiple Galt civic organizations.

-Sacramento Matsuyama Fun Run/Walk; family fun race starting at 7am July 4th at Matsuyama Elementary School on South Land Park Drive in the Pocket area of Sacramento. Funds raised benefit Matsuyama School Student Activities.

-Carmichael Gala Parade & Fireworks Show; parade begins at 10:30am on July 4th at the Grand Stand across from Carmichael Park in Carmichael, and fireworks are at 9:15pm. Other festivities like live music, concessions, kids crafts, etc. are held at La Sierra Community Center at 4pm.

-33rd Annual 4th of July 5-Miler in River Park; Fun run at Glen Hall Park in the River Park neighborhood of Sacramento starting at 7am on July 4th. Claimed to be "Sacramento's Oldest Running Event!"

-Arden Park Recreation & Park District July 4th Parade; family parade of bikes is held every year starting at 10am at La Sierra Park in Arden Park on July 4th.

-Annual East Sacramento Parade; family parade on the streets of 41st and 42nd @ M St in red, white, and blue...a Fabulous 40's tradition starting at 10am on July 4th.

-8th Annual Arden Arcade Freedom Parade; parade starts at 2700 Fulton Avenue, just south of Marconi at 10am on July 4th. Following the Parade is a family celebration with food, fun and games at Howe Park.

-Pyrospectacular at Cal Expo; lots of activities start at 5pm like harness racing, live music, and dancing. The famous fireworks display begins at 9:30pm...at Cal Expo on July 4th.

Every other week or so, I will receive a call from the representative of a loan servicer, or 3rd party contractor informing me they have been ordered to "secure" one of my short sale listings. Huh??

There are many loan servicers (like CitiMortgage, GMAC, Homecomings, Bank of America/Countrywide) that send representatives around to properties in default or with past due balances that make sure their "assets" (aka, properties their loans are on) are in decent condition and that they are properly secured. Often times if it is discovered that a property is vacant, or not properly secured, the loan servicer take it upon itself to make sure the physical integrity of the "asset" is not compromised.

Erin, what the heck does that mean? That means that occasionally I will receive a call that there has been an order to change the locks on one of my listings...however often it does not stop there. I have received calls that there are orders to drain full and functioning swimming pools, board-up functional windows, board up functional doors, padlock electrical panels, shut-off water, remove functional structures in the backyard (like a really nice Tuff Shed in one case), etc. In the instances I get an advanced warning of something like this, I have been able to convince the loan servicing folks that the action was not necessary.

The really lame part is the occasionally I will not be given an advanced warning, or the heads-up call goes to the seller directly and they ignore the call thinking it is a collection call...and the work is then performed without my knowledge or the knowledge of the seller. I have received some really angry calls from other agents trying to show my short sale listings only to find the keys in the lockbox do not fit the locks on the doors. In one instance, I had short sale approval from the lender, and the buyer went to the property to do a home inspection and caught the lender rep in the middle of draining the swimming pool. UGH.

The first time this happened about a 18 months ago, I was definitely taken by surprise. I have come to realize that it only makes sense that the bank wants to make sure that its "asset" does not fall into disrepair or is not vandalized. If you have ever looked at bank owned property for sale you will know this happens more often than anyone would like. Now it is something I prep my short sale sellers for in the event they are contacted by the loan servicer regarding this.

If ya'll follow me on Twitter, you will already know that this afternoon I went to a home inspection. Turns out the venting for this water heater is not connected to it in any way. Gotta love bank owned homes!

I can not emphasize enough the importance of getting a qualified professional set of eyes (a home inspector) to check out the home you are looking to purchase. Most buyers will not think to open up whatever closet the water heater is hiding in to look at it...and most would not know what they are looking at anyway. My client looked at it and had no idea anything was not as it should be! This is just one of many things that home inspectors check out...the inspection fee is money well spent!

Some one who shall remain nameless told me this morning that I should rename my blog...

As much as I love doing short sales, and negotiating them takes up a good chunk of my day, I try to keep the post topics of my blog pretty well-rounded. After all, this is the "Sacramento Real Estate Blog" - not necessarily the "Sacramento Short Sale Blog."

However because short sales are such a large part of what I do (as of right this second, I have 16 active short sale listings in the greater Sacramento area, and that number does not include my buyer transactions, pending sales, or my many already closed transactions), it is inevitably a topic that I have a lot to say about.

I have put in place very systematic processes for negotiating these. I do not farm the negotiation of short sales out to a 3rd party. I negotiate them myself. That's right - sometimes I awake before 5am to place calls to loss mitigation operations on the East Coast. Sometimes I spend in excess of an hour on hold with loss mitigation. Luckily I am an excellent multi-tasker! I am actually on hold with Bank of America right now!...yes I am blogging, replying to emails, answering calls on my other line, filing paperwork, catching up on my social networking, etc.

I just want to emphasize to the anyone reading this who may be researching short sales in Sacramento - this is an ever-changing short sale market we are in. Short sale lenders make and break their own rules on a daily basis. There are many complexities to these transactions, and no two short sales necessarily alike, although there are certain consistent elements in each one.

Luckily I have been doing so many short sales that I am able to anticipate many of these changes before they create actual problems.

Anyway...yes I do have more short sale listings rolling on to the market over the next couple weeks.  AND I have no plans to rename my blog...thank you very much!

Next week I will be posting Part II of Erin's Short Sale Experiment, where I measure the number of short sales vs. "regular" and bank-owned listings...very excited to see where that data is heading...

In a press release, the California Franchise Tax Board stated that almost all of the California New Home Purchase Tax Credit has been allocated already. There was a limited amount of money available for this tax credit, and it was available for new construction purchases by first time buyers in California between March 1, 2009 - February 28, 2010. We are only 4.5 months in...

THIS IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE FEDERAL TAX CREDIT! The federal tax credit of up to $8,000 is still available to those who qualify and purchase their home prior to December 1, 2009.

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I had to share a success story from a closing I had earlier this month. I represented a buyer for the purchase of a 1910 Midtown Sacramento home. The buyer used a VA loan to make his purchase. Fast forward to the end of the story - he purchased his home for $0 down, and $0 out of pocket...and gets to take advantage of the $8,000 federal tax credit for first time buyers! What!?

This story is so fantastic for a couple reasons...the first reason is that there is a bit of a stigma attached to VA lending programs. Why? Mainly because these loan programs have some terms and conditions that conventional conforming loan programs do not. Listing agents and sellers are under the impression that VA loans take longer to process...there are health and safety considerations that the appraiser must take into account...the property must have a section one pest certification...there are certain fees that the seller must pay for the buyer... The second reason this story is so fantastic, is that my client literally did not spend a dime to purchase this house...VA is one of the few true 100% financing programs left.

Sellers usually select the path of least resistance in selecting which buyer to work with. Offers with VA financing generally end up at the bottom of the stack.

We were fortunate enough to discover a property that had flown under the radar. It had been sitting on the market for about 2 months, was occupied by tenants, and the property could be shown by appointment only. We patiently scheduled an appointment several days in advance...turns out we were the first and only showing of this house. My clients really liked the house, and we immediately wrote up an offer...because of its extended time on the market, we were aggressive with our offered price and terms. We asked the seller to pay ALL of the buyer's closing costs (over 4% of the purchase price), provide a pest clearance, roof certification, among other things. They accepted the offer as written the next day!

The appraiser did his inspection of the property within a few days, and the appraisal report was received within about 5 business days. The appraiser only noted one issue that was required to be repaired prior to the close of escrow (not bad for a 100 year old house!). Pest and roof inspections were performed...both were certified with few repairs. My client did his home inspection, and there were no issues found that were objectionable to the buyer.

There was enough money in my client's credit from the seller for closing costs, that we were able to invoice the inspection fee to escrow...my client did not pay anything out of pocket, and his entire $2,000 deposit was refunded to him after the close!

Anyway - buyers and sellers - keep an open mind with VA lending programs. Strategize with your Realtor on the best way to make this a win-win transaction.

To follow up on my post from two weeks ago regarding the Sacramento County Tax Assessor's "Decline in Market Value" property tax valuations, here is a little more information...

The Assessor's office has posted a "Decline in Value Proposition 8 Frequently Asked Questions" page pertaining to their re-assessment process, and their review and appeal process and timeframes for value re-assessment for this upcoming tax year...

According to an article in the Sacramento Bee today, California is imposing a new 90-day foreclosure moratorium starting tomorrow - Monday, June 15th.

A loss mitigation rep in the short sale department from GMAC actually told me this was coming a few weeks ago. He was the negotiator for a short sale that I closed with THREE mortgage loans. The first (with GMAC) was approximately $389,000, the second (also with GMAC) was approximately $73,000, and the third (a SMUD loan that had been used to finance energy efficient dual pane windows for the house), was approximately $9,500.

The house was sold for $219,000, and the written short sale approval came for all three loans within 16 days from the date we received the offer. I was able to negotiate a FULL payoff for the SMUD loan, with the remainder going to GMAC's two loans. Why were they so eager to pay off the SMUD loan in full to get this process over with?

According to the negotiator, their rationale was that they wanted to recoup any funds as quickly as possible via the short sale because the upcoming moratorium would more or less indefinitely delay GMAC's ability to foreclose and resell the house in a timely manner. Not sure if other lenders will look at their short sales in the same manner...time will tell...

There has been a lot of buzz lately about just how many short sales are on the market in Sacramento. I can tell you that I have a growing number of short sale listings myself. For me, there is not too much difference in negotiating 5 short sales or 25...I am dealing with the same lenders repetitively, and I have developed a great system to negotiate them. The number of short sales vs. bank owned properties vs. traditional sellers on the market right now is pretty interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I am going to do a little recurring experiment. Let's call it "Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment."

I am no scientist (I took bone-head science - astronomy in college, ok?), but I am going to take a few zip codes and dissect them. How many short sales are there right now? How many will there be in the same areas in a few months?...and over time? What percentage of all of the listings will be short sales? My hypothesis: the number of short sales will grow over time, as will their dominance in our marketplace (overall percentage of listings).

So for my experiment, let's look at the zip codes 95624, 95610, 95826, 95818, and 95819. We'll call this sample (as of today's MLS data) the "control data" for my experiment. We will revisit these cross sections over the next few months, and see how this plays out. Oooh! How fun!!

95624 is the section of Elk Grove closest to Hwy 99. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 290 active listings there. 199/290 listings are short sales. That is more than two-thirds of the inventory there!! The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $234,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95610 is a section of Citrus Heights. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 126 active listings there. 76/126 listings are short sales. Slightly less than two-thirds of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $208,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95826 is a section of Rosemont and College Greens. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 90 active listings there. 56/90 listings are short sales. Slightly less than two-thirds of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was also $208,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95864 is a section of Sierra Oaks, Arden Park, and Arden Manor. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 147 active listings there. 25/147 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $430,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95818 is a section of Midtown, Land Park, and Curtis Park. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 75 active listings there. 12/75 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $382,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95819 is a section of East Sacramento. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 71 active listings there. 14/71 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $378,000 according to Trendgraphix.

Welp...let's see how this takes shape over time!

Today, the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Young Professionals Council" put on a BBQ and Vendor Fair fundraising event to raise money for SAR's Scholarship Fund. We had 46 participating vendors, great food, ice cream, DJ music, and LOTS of donated raffle prizes. We weathered an unexpected summer rain, but a good time was had by all! While the final tallies are not in just yet, we estimate that we raised over $4,000 for the fund.

Right before our event today, SAR held a ceremony to present its annual scholarships to Sacramento-area graduating high school seniors. Today SAR gave over $44,000 in scholarships. Did you know that SAR's Scholarship program award dollars exceed that of the California Association of Realtors, and also that of the Nationals Association of Realtors? AMAZING.

This is YPC's second time doing the Vendor Fair fundraiser. Last year's event raised over $3,300, which was donated to the Mustard Seed School at Loaves & Fishes. We already set a date for next year's event, which will take place in early May 2010.

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Well, it's June 1...know what that means? That means the Sacramento County Tax Assessor's office has formally re-assessed the tax assessment basis for parcels in Sacramento.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will already know that I learned that the Prop 8 Decline in Value Re-assessed value for my own house has just been reduced by $201,000...that equates to a savings for me of roughly $2,010 per year, or roughly $167.50 per month. WOW. Not that I am stoked that the value of my house has dropped, but I am very that the tax assessment has been substantially lowered.

Visit the Sacramento County Tax Assessor's list of parcels that received a Decline in Value Reassessment. While many properties were reassessed, there are many that were not reassessed. For example on my street, only 4 parcels were reassessed (and there are at least 20 homes on my street). If you disagree with your property's reassessment, or if your property was not reassessed and you think it should be, you can file an appeal. The form will ask you for sales of like kind property from January 2009 (or as close to that date as comps are available), so feel free to email me and I can provide them to you.

How cool is this? Sign up for a guided walking tour of Sacramento, courtesy of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

To make a reservation or pre-pay, call 916-442-8575, or email dsp@downtownsac.org. You may also show up at any tour's starting point at the specified time to begin tour and pay the guide with cash or check.

There are 8 different tours to take...check out things like a tour covering an overview of Sacramento's history, architectural styles from different periods of history, Sacramento's growth and redevelopment, a kid's tour, etc.

Most tours are 6-8 blocks and are 60-90 minutes in length.

Dodged a bullet this week on one of my short sales.

For those of you who have not noticed, it seems like everyone and their mother is refinancing right now to take advantage of the low interest rates. Great. This has pushed loan processing, underwriting, document drawing, and funding timeframes out because lenders have not added staff to meet the increase in volume...each step is taking several business days to complete, making 30-day escrows for purchase transactions pretty tight.

Erin, why is this a problem?

Generally speaking, when a short sale lender approves a short sale, per my experience about half the time the short sale lender allows 30 days from the date of approval to close the transaction...the other half of the time, they allow LESS than 30 days to close the transaction.

So...I have a short sale listing that received approval from the short sale lender on April 28th. The approval expires on May 28th. Cool, right?

In theory, that should be adequate time to close this escrow. The buyer's agent was really on the ball, however the loan officer for whatever reason did not share our sense or urgency. The appraisal was ordered within a couple days, and the buyer's loan went into underwriting within less than a week of the short sale lender's acceptance. Under normal circumstances, underwriting would have taken 3-4 business days, and documents would have been drawn and sent to escrow within another day or so. In this case, it took 9 business days to underwrite the loan. Then, as if that were not long enough, it then took 5 business days to draw loan documents.
The loan officer's attitude? "Oh - no big deal. The short sale lender will just grant an extension to expiration date on the approval documentation." WRONG!

Loan documents were FINALLY received by Placer Title on Friday after the buyer's agent and I escalated our efforts and went above the loan officer's head.

So tell me...what do you think would have happened if the buyer were unable to close escrow on time? Extensions to the expiration date of a short sale by the short sale lender are NOT AUTOMATIC. Some short sale lenders will require you to start the process over if you can not close on time. Some short sale lenders will charge you a per diem penalty for each day past the expiration if you can not close on time...I have seen this as high as $200/day. If there is a Trustee Sale date set for a day soon after the short sale expiration date, some short sale lenders will allow the property to foreclose.

The moral of the story? Don't test these waters. Do everything humanly possible to close on time. Buyers - make sure your lender is prepared, and has a complete file so all that is needed is an appraisal to turn the file into underwriting.

While working on my short sales today, I made my way through the automated system for Aurora Loan Servicing, when the prompt informed me that my expected wait time was - one hour, nineteen minutes, and fourty-four seconds. No joke.

Obviously I had my work cut out for me.

I am particularly proud of this creation during today's bout listening to hold music while negotiating short sales. This required some manipulation of the image of my face within the hole provided...

If you do not recognize the body of this photo (sorry fellas, not my real body!), this was a shot of Britney Spears a few years ago, pre-children, for the cover of a magazine.

If anyone was wondering, that one hour, nineteen minutes, and fourty-four seconds of estimated hold time turned out to only be 48 minutes. Lucky me. :-D

I am not ashamed to admit that yesterday I did a little "happy dance" when I learned from Placer Title that one of my transactions went on record (closed escrow).

To set the stage...I was the listing agent for a really nice property in South Land Park Terrace...this was one of my few non-short sale listings. If you are not familiar with South Land Park Terrace, it is a neighborhood just to the south of William Land Park / Sutterville Road. The homes were built primarily in the 1940's - 1960's and are generally ranch style...a much different look and feel than their neighbor to the north, Land Park. Being geographically so close together, they have do some neighborhood amenities in common, however values and market trends are a bit dissimilar.

Anyway, we were able to get the property into contract with a buyer...however there were literally no "like kind" recent sales in South Land Park Terrace within the last 90 days. Like kind comps are a key component of what an appraiser needs to justify the value of the property for the buyer's lender, so the buyer can obtain financing for the purchase. In fact, the highest sale in the last 90 days in SLPT was $335,000. That home was on a relatively busy street, was in inferior condition, and was over 500 square feet smaller. Not at all of "like kind" to my listing, which was in contract for $485,000, superior condition, superior location, and much larger.

UGH...if ya'll have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that appraisals in general have been really hairy lately. Not only have the processes for ordering appraisals for most types of transactions changed recently (thanks to the HVCC, which is crappy legislation by the way), but appraisals live and die by the comparables used, and are subject to review and generaly beating up and re-valuing by the loan underwriter.

Needless to say, all parties -- listing agent, buyer's agent, buyer, and seller -- involved in this transaction were really sweating the outcome of the appraisal because although we all knew the value of this property was indeed the contract price of the property, we had very little proof. The most recent like kind comps sold back in September 2008.

By some act of god, the appraiser assigned to this file was familiar with the area. He used the most appropriate comps he could find (went to comparable outside neighborhoods), made the appropriate monetary value adjustments, and wrote LOTS of narrative comments justifying the value of the house. When the appraisal report was received by the lender, it came in at the contract price!

Ok...that was the first hurdle - next we had to get that appraisal through the fine toothed comb of the underwriter. If ya'll remember, in one of my past transactions this year, an underwriter used Zillow to second-guess the value of an appraisal. So the underwriter reviewed the file, and did not question the value assigned by the appraiser!!! Loan documents were drawn and sent to Placer Title!

Anyway...so the end result - we closed escrow yesterday! I was sitting in a committee meeting at the Sacramento Association of Realtors when I received the email from escrow that the transaction was officially on record. I got high-fives from others sitting at the table!

Want to know another little tid-bit? During the escrow, I received calls from three separate agents, engaged in three separate transactions, wanting to know if we had any appraisal issues and when our close of escrow was scheduled...they were not so fortunate to have a local and knowledgeable appraiser assigned to their transactions. They desperately needed my listing to close so they could use it as a comp. Any potential refinancing in that neighborhood will likely benefit from this comp too. I wish them all well.

It's been a while since I wrote a long blog post, so I figured today while I spend some time as the "agent on duty" I would write a novel...or at least maybe the first chapter of a novel. Ok, make that the prologue to a novel. Whatever...

So if any of you follow me on Twitter, you already know that this last Friday morning I was lucky enough to attend a presentation by Nancy Bui, one of the elected Directors for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).  Each month, the Sacramento Association of Realtors hosts a "Public Issues Forum", and Ms. Bui was nice enough to talk to us...

A couple fun facts about SMUD before I get too far into this...did you know that SMUD is the sixth largest community-owned electric system in the US in terms of the number of customers served? I didn't! SMUD provides services to more than 550,000 customers (more than 1.3 million residents) over a 900-square-mile area that includes Sacramento County and a small portion of Placer County. 

Anyway...we are very lucky to have SMUD in Sacramento. Why?

• They are making their "carbon footprint" smaller. They are planning to meet the new greenhouse gas emmission standards set forth in legislation AB 32 ahead of schedule (before the year 2020).
• Currently 17% of their energy generation is done via "renewable" energy sources.
• As a SMUD customer, you can choose to have your energy come from mother earth. You can choose to buy energy from natural sources of energy as the sun, the wind, or methane gas through SMUD's Greenergy® program.
• SMUD is helping local builders plan energy efficient home communities. They have partnered with 11 local home builders to construct over 4,100 new "Smart Homes."
• SMUD offers financing and rebate programs for energy efficient upgrades. You don't have to purchase a brand new home to have one that is energy efficient! You can finance new central heating and air conditioning, dual pane windows, solar / photovoltaic installations, etc. and get rebates for things like purchasing new Energy Star appliances, sealing your HVAC ductwork, installing a whole house fan, etc.
• They are rolling out "AMI Meters." These "Smart Grid" meters will be rolled out to all SMUD's customers over the next few years, and will replace the meters in your main panel. Through a web interface, SMUD customers can log in and view their energy consumption in real time, and modify they way they are using electricity in their homes to save money and energy.
• SMUD offer free shade trees for your home! They are a long time partner of the Sacramento Tree Foundation and according to SMUD, tree roots help clean rainwater and add stability to the soil, they produce oxygen and help cleanse the air we breathe, and if properly placed they can cut your home cooling costs by up to 40 percent.
• SMUD has a really neat online energy consumption calculator that any SMUD customer can use to help determine your current energy usage, and that suggests strategies to make your household more energy efficient, and suggests ways might save on your bill.

SMUD is looking for ways to make Green, energy efficient technology more accessible to its customers. We Sacramento residents are truly lucky to have such a forward-thinking and progressive local utility provider on the bleeding edge of this movement!

In light of the fact I am completely annoyed that the Giants' bullpen somehow managed to blow their 3 run lead this evening, rather than watch the rest of the game, I have decided to write a blog instead. I had a really long day and was hoping to relax in front of the tube and watch the Giants win...but I find blogging very therapeutic, so here we are.

So lately, the vast majority of my buyer clients have been first time home buyers. This is truly an exciting time to be a first time buyer! Why?

In many cases, your monthly mortgage payment will be roughly the same as your monthly rent payment. The median home price in Sacramento County in April 2009 was $165,000. Using an FHA loan program, $165,000 with the required 3.5% downpayment ($5,775), the monthly payment comes out to approximately $1,132...that is the fully loaded monthly payment for a 30-year fixed loan at 5%, including your principle, interest, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and mortgage insurance.

There are some very advantageous tax credits available to first time buyers at both the state and federal level. The California state tax credit is up to $10,000 spread out over 3 years, applies only to new construction homes purchased until March of 2010. There is a cap on the total tax credit of $100M...so the money runs out, and all that make qualifying purchases may not be able to take advantage of the credit. The federal tax credit is up to $8,000 for any principle residence purchased before December 1, 2009. Please check with your CPA to see how you may qualify for these tax incentives.

There are several first time buyer grants and downpayment assistance programs available. Many are based on your profession, household income, number of people in your household, and the city or county where the home is. These programs change all the time, and availability of funds changes all the time too...be sure to work closely with your loan officer to see if you qualify.

All good stuff...the combination of these circumstances is just too much for most first time buyers to resist!

Anyway, in the time it took me to write this post, the Giants LOST to the Mets 8-6! What a joke...Starting pitcher Tim Lincecum got a no decision. GRRR.

Hmm...what's going on here? The median real estate price point in Sacramento County has been pretty even for the last four months in a row.

Supply and demand is a pretty basic economic principle...if you look at the number of homes on the market versus the number of homes that closed escrow in April 2009, there is only a 2.5-month supply of homes on the market. These inventory numbers are really interesting if broken down into different price ranges...in the $200k and below price range, last month there was just 1.6 months of inventory. Between $200k - 500k, there was 3.3 months of inventory. Over $500k, there was 13.6 months of inventory!! The market is very brisk and competitive in the lower price ranges. For a reference point, 6 months of inventory is widely regarded as a market with buyer/seller equilibrium.

Just to flash back...in September 2007, the overall supply of homes in Sacramento County had reached / peaked at 15 months.

Please keep in mind that not all areas and neighborhoods are affected in the same way...if you would like me to email you statistical graphs for a specific zip code, feel free to email me at erin@erinattardi.com.