Sacramento-area home buyers closed escrow during August on 3,375 new and existing homes, fewer than July and a third straight month of lower sales than the same time last year, La Jolla researcher MDA DataQuick reported today.
Sales fell somewhat sharply from July across the capital region. It mirrored a statewide trend that DataQuick attributed to "a thinning inventory of foreclosure properties and financial uncertainty among potential home buyers."
The firm noted that first-time buyers have expressed increasing frustration with the competitive process of buying bank repos, and hinted that more would-be buyers are also nervous about losing their jobs. The drop reveals continued uncertainty in a capital-area housing market still struggling to find balance after years of falling values and thousands of foreclosures.
August's 3,375 sales in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties compared to 3,815 in July and 3,998 during the same month last year, DataQuick reported.
Median prices for new and existing homes combined remained flat at $180,000 in Sacramento County, but remained well up from a February low of $160,000.
But they broke past the $300,000 barrier in Placer County for the first time since February, reaching $305,000. Median is that price point where half sell for more and half for less.
Today's price report marked the fourth anniversary of Aug. 2005, when median prices peaked at $387,000 in Sacramento County, and then began falling backward. Prices in five other area counties also peaked in late 2005. Nevada County reached a boom high of $501,000 in October. Yolo County crested at $474,000 in November. So did Yuba County, reaching a peak of $351,500. Placer and Sutter counties cemented the trend in December. Placer reached its housing boom high of $525,000, and Sutter peaked at $339,000.
El Dorado County's median price topped out in March 2006 at $531,250. Amador County similarly crested in May 2006 at $425,000.
Prices have since fallen dramatically in every county. They're down by half or more from housing boom highs in Amador, Sacramento, Sutter and Yuba counties.
DataQuick's newest numbers also revealed a continuing weakness of new home sales throughout most of the area. Regionally, new homes accounted for 9.6 percent of closed escrows, the firm reported. Four years ago new homes represented one in four sales.
The exception was Placer County. New homes, largely on the city's west side, represented 22 percent of the county's closed escrows in August.
Highlights of DataQuick's August statistics for new and existing homes combined:
• Sacramento County: 2,061 sales with a median price of $180,000. That's down 14.3 percent from August 2008.
• Placer County: 554 sales with a median price of $305,000. That's down 7.6 percent from the same time last year.
• Yolo County: 209 sales with a median price of $260,000, down 16.7 percent from August 2008.
• El Dorado County: 183 sales at a median price of $310,000. That's 20.5 percent lower than the same time last year.
• Yuba County: 116 sales with a median price of $155,000, down 12.9 percent from a year earlier.
• Nevada County: 129 sales with a median price of $325,500. That's 20 percent less than August 2008.
• Sutter County: 93 sales with a median price of $165,000. It's down 13.2 percent from August 2008.
• Amador County: 30 sales at a median price of $200,000. That's down 23.1 percent from August 2008.
Source Sac Bee
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