by Calculated Risk on 8/12/2015 03:32:00 PM

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 July, total sales were up 12.3% from July 2014, and conventional equity sales were up 16.3% compared to the same month last year.

In July, 9.1% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 10.7% last month, and down from 12.3% in July 2014.  This is the lowest percentage of distressed sales since they started breaking out distressed sales).

The percentage of REOs was at 4.7% in July, and the percentage of short sales was 4.4%.

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 10.8% year-over-year (YoY) in July.  This was the third consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento (a big recent change).

Cash buyers accounted for 16.5% of all sales (frequently investors).

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