by Calculated Risk on 3/11/2016 07:18:00 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 February, total sales were down 1.5% from February 2015, and conventional equity sales were up 2.1% compared to the same month last year.

In February, 9.7% of all resales were distressed sales. This was up from 9.2% last month, and down from 14.8% in February 2015.

The percentage of REOs was at 5.4% in February, and the percentage of short sales was 4.3%.

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 23.5% year-over-year (YoY) in January.  This was the tenth consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento.

Cash buyers accounted for 20.1% of all sales (frequently investors).

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