Foreclosure zones turn into capital-area hot spots for home sales

All last year they were among the state's top neighborhoods for foreclosures, those ZIP codes where the American dream of homeownership so often died.

In 2008 they're taking top honors for sales.

When DataQuick Information Systems reported this week that Sacramento County posted its first gain in year-over year home sales in 37 months, these were the neighborhoods that made it happen: working-class areas in south Sacramento, North Highlands and North Sacramento, Elverta and Citrus Heights.

Newer suburban areas of Elk Grove and West Sacramento also did their share.

What they have in common is an abundance of homes with falling values, heavily discounted bank-owned residences and scenes of multiple bids by investors and first-time buyers.

"People who have been locked out of the market are buying homes at $130,000 and $140,000," said Kevin Cooper, a broker at Elk Grove-based Cooper and Associates who handles many of the bank-owned listings now in south Sacramento and Elk Grove.

"There are pretty nice homes out there, homes that previously sold for $275,000 to $300,000."

DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said neighborhoods across the state that are seeing the fastest declines in price are also experiencing the biggest gains in sales.

"From the Mexican border to Northern California, any ZIP code where prices have fallen a lot is now posting relatively strong sales," he said.

During the third quarter of 2007, Meadowview's 95832 was one of California's most default-prone ZIP codes, alongside 95330 in Lathrop in San Joaquin County and 92571 in the Riverside County city of Perris, according to DataQuick.

Now inside 95832 – a mix of newer housing built during the boom years and older neighborhoods built after World War II – April sales jumped 266 percent over the same month in 2007. The ZIP code's median sales price was $185,000, down 44 percent in just a year. Median is where half cost more and half cost less.

LePage said 79 percent of the April sales in that ZIP code were homes lost to foreclosure during the past year.

Other ZIP codes in the top five for year-over-year sales jumps:

• 95660 in North Highlands, up 211 percent.

• 95834 in North Sacramento, up 180 percent.

• 95823 in south Sacramento's Meadowview area, up 157 percent.

• 95828 in south Sacramento's Florin area, up 143.9 percent.

Meadowview and other top-selling neighborhoods now have some of the region's lowest median prices per square foot – $103 in Meadowview, $110 in North Highlands and $131 in North Sacramento.

By comparison, median prices per square foot remain above $300 in areas near downtown Sacramento.

"Investors are just gobbling that stuff up," said Fair Oaks-based real estate broker Warren Adams of Security Pacific Real Estate. "It's penciling out and making positive cash flow."

Cooper said most of his clients are investors.

"A client just closed for $140,000 with 20 percent down," he said. "His house payment is $913 a month, and he's getting $1,300 a month rent."

Falling values? Not here

What's with all the talk about home values falling? It's not always true, especially if you consider higher-priced homes in established older neighborhoods between midtown Sacramento and Folsom.

Many appear to be holding their values, says Curt Westwood, president of Gold River-based Westwood Homes.

Westwood says the media's 30-month drumbeat about falling prices led him, through Stewart Title, to search the region's multiple-listing services for homes that recently sold for more than $800,000.

He found 32 homes in that category between Highway 50 and Interstate 80 – bought for a combined $27.6 million in 2004-2005.

They resold between April 2007 and April 2008 – a pretty bleak time for real estate – for a combined $35.1 million. That's a 27 percent gain in value, he said, proving there is always something new to learn about the region's housing market.

For sale: A subdivision

At this point in the housing downturn, auctioneers have put everything from foreclosed homes to builders' model homes on the block. Now comes the first bank-owned subdivision.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his Home Front blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs.