- Sacramento Real Estate Adventures - Your Sacramento Real Estate and mortgage blog!

As far as I am concerned any time you buy a home in the Sacramento Real Estate Market... it's an investment!

Whether you live in it or buy it for a rental... You have purchased a piece of real estate that will provide you a return over the next several years.

This weekend I did inspections with one of my first time home buyer clients! I took some time while I was waiting for the inspection to shoot some video. I wanted to share with you a great little neighborhood in Sacramento I sell homes in.

When I am working with an investor or first time home buyer who needs to keep their price range in the $100k range,  I prepare my clients for a rough road.

There are a couple reasons...

1.  This is a very competitive price range!

2. Inventory is down... Making getting an offer more of a challenge!

3.  It's tough to find a decent area in this price range you would feel safe in at night!

4. Will the condition of the home allow you to get a mortgage for it?

Watch this video and get some insight to the challenges investors and first time home buyers are having in this price range. See homes that I sold in the neighborhood and find out why I sell so many home here.

Thanks for watching another Sacramento Real Estate Adventure! I look forward to helping you invest in the Sacramento Real Estate Market!

Happy New Year! 2012 Is going to rock!

This past year in the Elk Grove real estate market was definitely not for the kind at heart!

As I reflect about 2011, I realize this year was all about KEEPING THE DEAL TOGETHER!!

Most home purchases and sales I was involved with in 2011 was like a chess game. We always had to think several moves ahead in order to avoid delays and bumps in the road. I learned more than ever how to fine tune my leverage skills.

I laugh about some of the ways I got offers accepted this year! Even some of the things I had to do to get a deal to close. I wore many hats in 2011 that’s for sure! Landscaper, appliance installer, junk hauler, courier of loan paperwork, negotiator, counselor, verbal punching bag when needed, referee, and don’t forget just an overall superwomen!

It’s exciting to be making history with my clients. They are going to look back at our “war stories” during this crazy real estate market and laugh! I admire so many of my clients who are buying as much investment property as they can. Then there are those who realized that they could be paying a mortgage instead of paying rent. I’ll show them later how to turn that home into a rental and build a portfolio of investment homes of their own.

There were a lot of GREAT BUYS this year! That shopping spree is going to continue into 2012.

If you want to buy a home or investment home this year, let me know and I will start watching for you.  If you are thinking about selling, please call me and me we will discuss your options. If you are upside down… The Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act expires this year and your options could be limited! So call me and let’s get it figured out!

If you know someone who wants to buy or sell or needs to short sale... I would very much appreciate your referrals!! I promise to provide them with a high level of service and as you know THEY CAN TRUST ME!

I want to thank my clients for trusting me in this tough real estate market. I them all continued success in 2012 and I am so excited about the possibilities for all of us!

Time for another Sacramento Real Estate Market! 

Let's take a look back at what home sales did last month in October.

Pending sales are still way up! In fact, they are at the highest levels since April of this year. As I mentioned, in my last month's report, I think this has to do with the tax credit that expired around the spike in pending sales in April.  To get more insite about this... read last month's market report >> 

The good news this month is pending sales are continuing to increase! This means home buyers are out in force making offers on homes?  Are you? 

The cost per square foot increased slightly this month, but overall have remained steady in
the last 12 months.

Let's look at original asking price vs. the sold price.  The green line below indicates the average original listing price for homes in our area. The red line shows what the sellers actually sold the homes for. So on average in October, we saw homes sell for approx 13% less than their original listing price.

Inventory levels increased this month again as we see more homes available for sale in the Sacramento Real Estate Market! If the inventory levels continue to rise, we could see another slight drop in prices if we do not absorb some of this new inventory quick enough.

It's important that we also keep an eye on foreclosure trends in our area.  As you can see below, Notice of Defaults are down 19.49% from last month. When a Notice of Default is filed.... this starts the first stage of the foreclosure process. Notice of Defaults in Sacramento County went down in October as well by 1.34% from last month.  Notice of Defaults are filed 21 days before the foreclosure sale and are the final stage of the foreclosure process. 

If you have been listening to the news, you may have heard a handful of lenders voluntarily haulted foreclosure filings in October. The concern was these lenders (allegedly) were processing their foreclosures improperly. This hault in all foreclosures more than likely impacted October's foreclosure numbers since the lenders involved were major players in our industry (Bank of America, GMAC, and PNC).  

So let's recap!

Our inventory of homes in the Sacramento market has continued to rise in the month of October.  This means more homes available for buyers. Pending sales continue to increase as well as more buyers get back in the game and shop for homes.

That is where we are today in regard to the Sacramento Real Estate Market! If you are interested to buy or sell a home... our team is here to help!

Are you looking to buy a home in Elk Grove? Have you ever wondered if you can get a better deal on a bank owned home, short sale, or private party sale?

I ran some numbers to see if I can answer this question!

Just a quick lesson for those of you who do not completely understand the three categories... let's review them for a minute.

Elk Grove Short Sale: These transactions involve a sellers who owes their bank more than their home is worth. The buyer makes an offer to the seller, then the seller has to obtain a short sale approval from their bank. This means the bank agrees to release the lien (mortgage) on the home, even though they will not be paid back in full.

Elk Grove Bank Owned Home: These homes have been foreclosed on and are now owed by the bank and are more than likely vacant.

Private party sale: These are homes that are NOT bank owned or short sales. They are private party sales, probate sales, bankruptcy sales and other non bank owned or short sale transactions.

The first item we are going to look at is how long on average bank owned homes, short sales, and private party sales stay on the market before they are sold.

It makes sense that Elk Grove short sales lead the pack having the most average days on the market of 154. The short sale process can take months to get an approval back from the bank. This makes sense that short sales take much longer to closes escrow than the other two categories. Elk Grove Bank owned homes are in 2nd place at at 47 days on the market and private party sales are at 42. This is because these homes are ready to sell today as opposed to a short sale.

Next... let's look at average cost per square foot for an Elk Grove home based on area sales.

If you compare on average the cost per square foot of a bank owned home, short sale listing, or private party sale... the best deals on average is the Elk Grove bank owned home. As you can see, you can get the cheapest square foot cost for a bank owned home... but a short sale gets you pretty much the same deal. Normally, there are issues with the condition or maintenance for these homes... which provides a discount in price. Elk Grove private party sellers are selling their homes as quickly as banks, but are netting more on average! That is great news for those looking to sell an Elk Grove home or investment property!

Finally... let's look at how many months of inventory we have left in the Elk Grove Real Estate Market.

If you look at all the single family homes currently on the market, it would take us an average 2 months to sell every last house currently for sale in Elk Grove.

I thought it would be fun to check the absorption rates for each of our three categories (bank owned, short sale and private party sale). What is the absorption rate? The absorption rate tells us of the available homes for sale in Elk Grove, how many were absorbed (purchased) by buyers.

Again the bank owned homes win again! Over 70% of the bank owned homes that were available to buy in June 2010 were sold. When you compare that to figure to a short sales at 41% and private party sales at 46.8%... Elk Grove bank owned homes are certainly getting snapped up almostv2 times as much as short sales and private party sales.

In conclusion, bank owned homes provide you on average the best price, but as you can see there is more competition for these homes based on the absorption rate.

Be prepared to move quick when a new bank owned home comes up for sale... because other buyers will be.

Expect to pay more for Sacramento private party homes for sale, but remember they are often in much better condition than a short sale or bank owned home. Keep in mind these are averages and every neighborhood will reflect different numbers, but it will give you a indication of what is going on in our Elk Grove Real Estate Market as a whole.

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Elk Grove, please call me and we can discuss how I can help you navigate through our historic real estate market!

Elk Grove, Ca. real estate market has been hit hard over the last several years. I thought it would be a good time to look at where we are and see if the pace of foreclosures has slowed any.

If you are looking to buy a home in Elk Grove, you might be surprised how affordable homes have gotten in our area!

Many of my clients ask if there is still room for the Elk Grove area to come down further in price.

The truth is I don't know for sure! We are dealing with historic times and there are so many variables to factor to determine this answer.  With Government interventions and the current state of the World economy... there is no way to really predict what will happen for sure.

What I can tell you is the local Elk Grove Real Estate Market has appeared to stabilize over the last several months. With the continued flow of foreclosures and the inventory of homes that are now bank owned... it is really hard to say what will happen. I can tell you that we have seen a huge correction in our prices since 2005! At this point, it is possible to buy a home for less than one would pay in rent. I would imagine if our prices suddenly dropped again we would see a big impact to our local rental market. Fortunately what we have going for us right now is banks are more willing to approve short sales and loan modifications. This way we don;t have to wait until the foreclosure to address the problem.

Here is a graph that shows what has happened in the Elk Grove Real Estate Market. Over the last couple of months we have seen the market stabilize.

As you can see over the last 3 years... for the most part Elk Grove has also seen a steady flow of foreclosures. It doesn't appear to have slowed down unfortunately!

What we have seen over the last 3 years, is a shift in what happens once a homeowner in Elk Grove resident falls behind on their mortgage.

As you can see in 2007 and 2008 the banks flooded our Elk Grove Real Estate Market with bank owned homes. During that time you can see very little foreclosure sales (when the bank auctions off the property for sale) were postponed back then.

We are now seeing more Government incentives for homeowners and banks to try a short sale or loan modification instead of foreclosure. We are also seeing more and more cancelations or delays of foreclosure sales. Many banks have figured out that they are better off to work with the homeowner as oppose to just automatically foreclosure as in the past. 

We have also seen a shift of what type of Elk Grove homes are being foreclosed. For the most part, the lower purchase price foreclosures have dropped significantly over the last couple of years. This is most likely because the lower price point homes owners tend to have less cash reserves. These homeowners were the first to be hit. Now we are seeing folks in the higher price range starting to move towards foreclosure. 

So I am afraid I don't have great news. We are still seeing a steady flow of foreclosure filings in the Elk Grove area. The good news is our market seems to have settled down for now.

I will keep you posted on what is going on in the Elk Grove Real Estate Market! Just subscribe to my blog and you can receive new blog posts via email!

If you are looking to buy or sell an Elk Grove home I would love to apply for the job!

Check out our newest episode of Good Day Elk Grove!

Want to know what is going on in Elk Grove, Ca.? Check out our latest episode of Good Day Elk Grove and get the run down on what's going on around town! 

We are sharing our plans for Valentine's Day around town and video from the Project Ride Crab Feed!

Rico Rivera from Old Republic Home Warranty is reporting on a new requirement in 2010 to upgrade certain heating and air conditioning units in our area. If you have an older unit or are currently looking to buy a home in the Elk Grove area, you will want to watch our latest episode of Good Day Elk Grove. 

You can find Good Day Elk Grove on Facebook, Twitter, and www.GoodDayElkGrove.com!!!

Here is Rico Rivera's contact information:

Old Republic Home Warranty
Rico Rivera
(916) 254-8448
ricor@orhp.com
www.orhp.com 
 For quality repair and replacement of covered home systems and appliances, you've come to the right place! We provide coverage for your Plumbing, Electrical and Heating and Air Conditioning systems and kitchen appliances. In addition, optional coverage choices can be purchased to ‘custom fit' the Plan to the unique needs of your home.

If you know anyone who needs to be pre-approved for a home in Elk Grove, please have them give us a call at (916) 687-6868 or send an email to info@superiorloanteam.com !

Not only did we get invited to our client's house warming party this month, we got a gift certificate for $100! What a nice gesture!

Often times we forget that we do not just provide Sacramento mortgages... We are helping our client's dreams come true!

The gift was over the top and completely unexpected. The biggest kick we got was to see how much value the client placed on the service we provided them. They were so happy and told a story how the first thing they did when they got their keys was to turn on their stereo and dance around their new home.

The fact that they equated this milestone in their life to our efforts (and the Realtors Tony and Lynda Kirk) was heart warming.

I am so thankful to have clients like this and they are what make this business so much fun! This has been a tough year to be in the real estate business... especially in Sacramento. I am grateful to have a growing business and folks who will be clients for life!

Thank you John and Penny!

 Here is what happened this week in Elk Grove, CA Real Estate Market:

95624 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA 95624 this week is $239,000. The 329 properties (single family homes) have been on the market for an average of 156 days.

The median house size is 2045 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $4,350,000.
The least expensive listing is $94,900.

95757 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA 95757 this week is $261,667. The 297 properties have been on the market for an average of 150 days.

The median house size is 2473 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $1,390,000
The least expensive listing is $139,500.

95758 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA 95758 this week is $222,097. The 300 properties have been on the market for an average of 150 days.

The median house size is 1741 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $829,888.
The least expensive listing is $117,500.

Here is a chart the shows what our median price in all of the Elk Grove zip codes has done since 2007!

There are charts for the last 60 days for all 3 Elk Grove zip codes.

Want to get the full 10 page report on the Elk Grove Real Estate Market? Sign up now!

Want to learn more about the Elk Grove Real Estate Market? Check out our show Good Day Elk Grove >>

Here is what happened this week in Elk Grove, CA Real Estate Market:

95624 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA95624 this week is $249,000. The 316 properties(single family homes) have been on the market for an average of 128 days.

The median house size is 2144 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $4,350,000.
The least expensive listing is $94,900.

95757 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA 95757 this week is $260,525. The 311 properties have been on the market for an average of 133 days.

The median house size is 2539 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $1,390,000
The least expensive listing is $130,500.

95758 - The median list price in ELK GROVE, CA 95758 this week is $199,900. The 308 properties have been on the market for an average of 126 days.

The median house size is 1726 sq ft.
The most expensive listing is $829,000.
The least expensive listing is $120,000.

Here is a chart the shows what our median price in all of the Elk Grove zip codes has done since 2007!

There are charts for the last 60 days for all 3 Elk Grove zip codes.

Want to get the full 10 page report on the Elk Grove Real Estate Market? Sign up now!

Want to learn more about the Elk Grove Real Estate Market? Check out our show Good Day Elk Grove >>

Wonder what is going on with the Elk Grove Real Estate Market? Check out our first edition of Good Day Elk Grove!

Learn what is going on with our local market from top selling Realtors and Mortgage Planners who specialize in the Elk Grove area!

We are in a sweet spot right now... LOW interest rates - ROCK BOTTOM prices - TAX CREDIT for First Time Home Buyers AND Move-up Buyers! 

Find out how you can benefit!

We are excited about our new show and would love to your feedback!