Sacramento Housing in December: Sales up 19.6%, Inventory down 28% YoY

During the recession, I started following the Sacramento market to look for changes in the mix of houses sold (equity, REOs, and short sales). For a few years, not much changed. But in 2012 and 2013, we saw some significant changes with a dramatic shift from distressed sales to more normal equity sales.

This data suggests healing in the Sacramento market and other distressed markets are showing similar improvement.  Note: The Sacramento Association of REALTORS® started breaking out REOs in May 2008, and short sales in June 2009.

In December, total sales were up  19.6% from December 2014, and conventional equity sales were up 24.7% compared to the same month last year.  A very strong year-over-year increase.

In December, 7.6% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 8.3% last month, and down from 12.8% in December 2014.

The percentage of REOs was at 3.7% in December, and the percentage of short sales was 3.9%.

Here are the statistics.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the percent of REO sales, short sales and conventional sales.

There has been a sharp increase in conventional (equity) sales that started in 2012 (blue) as the percentage of distressed sales declined sharply.

Active Listing Inventory for single family homes decreased 27.9% year-over-year (YoY) in December.  This was the eighth consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento (a big recent change).

Cash buyers accounted for 14.3% of all sales (frequently investors).

Summary: This data suggests a more normal market with fewer distressed sales, more equity sales, and less investor buying.