by Calculated Risk on 6/23/2015 05:40:00 PM

Note: This was delayed this month.

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 some time, not much changed. But over the last 3 years we've seen some significant changes with a dramatic shift from foreclosures (REO: lender Real Estate Owned) to short sales, and the percentage of total distressed sales declining sharply.

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 May, 9.8% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 11.9% last month, and down from 14.7% in May 2014. Since distressed sales happen year round, but conventional sales decline in December and January, the percent of distressed sales bumps up in the winter (seasonal).

The percentage of REOs was at 5.3% in May, and the percentage of short sales was 4.4%.

This is the lowest level of distressed sales since this data series started.

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 0.1% year-over-year (YoY) in May.  This was the first YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento since April 2013.

Cash buyers accounted for 15.2% of all sales (frequently investors).

Total sales were up 4.1% from May 2014, and conventional equity sales were up 10.2% compared to the same month last year.

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