Anything might happen. But this is starting to look real.
For the third straight month, capital-area home sales climbed above figures for the same time last year, a welcome indicator in a region searching for the bottom of its long housing slump. But median prices continued to slide.
The 3,922 June escrow closings in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties were the most since June 2006, DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday.
Heavily discounted repossessed homes, however, have pushed median sales prices across the region to 4 1/2-, five- and even almost six-year lows, according to DataQuick statistics.
Analysts say buyers are reaping rewards of a steep falloff in prices across the last year. Driving the phenomenon are thousands of foreclosures and bank repossessions.
"There's a lot of renters who can, all of a sudden, qualify for a home that even a year or two ago was impossible," said Alan Wagner, president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors.
Among the trends in June, according to DataQuick:
• Sacramento County's 2,053 sales of existing homes were the highest since October 2005. Sales of new and existing homes combined reached a two-year high, up 45.7 percent from the same time last year.
• June's median price of $214,000 for resale homes in Sacramento County is the lowest since $210,000 in February 2003. Median prices for new and existing homes combined slipped to $220,000 in the county. That level was last seen in August 2002.
Median is that point where half cost more and half less.
• Placer County reported 610 sales of new and existing homes combined, 9.9 percent less than the same time last year. It was the fewest sales in the county since June 1996.
Median prices of all homes declined to $335,000, same as August 2003. Prices of existing homes – $341,500 – were the lowest since March 2004.
• El Dorado County, with 210 sales for all homes, was down 9.5 percent from the same time last year. Its median price of $380,000 is back to levels seen in July 2004.
• Yolo County reported 293 sales of new and existing homes, up 17.7 percent from a year ago. Its median price of $310,250 is back to February 2004 levels.
Though the sales uptick is encouraging, any rebound so far remains fragile, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. He said much depends on the economy, rising foreclosure rates and conditions in credit markets. The depth of the buyer pool is also an unknown, he said.
"It's hard to imagine the road to recovery from this downturn being smooth and sharply upward," LePage said. "It's more likely to be up and down and wind-y."
In the first six months of 2008, the eight-county region has recorded 17,067 closed escrows, according to DataQuick. At the same time, it recorded 12,482 foreclosures, according to Foreclosures.com, a Fair Oaks Web site for real estate investors.
June sales were driven by buyers like Marshall and Catherine Hendon. The two, in their mid-20s, rented in West Sacramento's Southport area for two years before moving into their first home last weekend.
"We feel we got a good deal," said Marshall Hendon, a project manager in commercial construction. "We bought it from a homeowner and didn't have to deal with a bank, which was nice."
The pair paid in the "low $300,000s" for the three-bedroom, two-bath house, on a quarter-acre lot in Sacramento's Arden Arcade neighborhood, he said. The Hendons bought with a Federal Housing Administration fixed-rate, 30-year loan now popular in the region. It allows a 3 percent down payment.
Century 21 real estate broker Lauralee Ensign of Fairfield, who works an Interstate 80 corridor that includes West Sacramento, said FHA loans, buyers' savings and "baby boomers helping children into their property" are propelling the market.
But among buyers, the Hendons were a minority. DataQuick said 63.3 percent of June's home sales in Sacramento County were foreclosed homes repossessed by banks. The Sacramento Association of Realtors said nearly half the county's sales were for homes priced below $200,000.
The month marked a 15-month low in the number of homes for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties, said another researcher, TrendGraphix of Sacramento. June ended with 11,854 homes for sale in the four counties. About one in five was a bank repossession, said Sara Veliz, assistant controller at Lyon Real Estate, TrendGraphix's parent company.
The firm's statistics shows the number of for-sale signs in the region peaked almost a year ago at 16,262 and have been sliding downward since as buyers scoop up discounted homes.
Kassy Perry is among those thrilled to have her house off that list. Perry, owner of Sacramento's Perry Communications Group, sold her Natomas house in June after seven months on the market. She sold it to people who were among the first to visit it late last year, and who then came back when the price was lower.
Perry recalled her frustration at competing with a similar foreclosed home down the street and fending off low-ball offers.
"It's not fun," she said. "It's a challenging market."
Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his Home Front blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs.
