by Calculated Risk on 4/08/2016 08:00:00 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 March, total sales were up 4.7% from March 2015, and conventional equity sales were up 6.0% compared to the same month last year.

In March, 10.1% of all resales were distressed sales. This was up from 9.7% last month, and down from 12.4% in March 2015.

The percentage of REOs was at 5.8% in March, and the percentage of short sales was 4.3%.

Here are the statistics.

Press Release: Sales volume jumps 33%, days on market decreases further

Sales volume jumped 33.1% from 1,082 to 1,440 for March. This current number is up 4.7% from March last year (1,376 sales).
...
Although the total Active Listing Inventory increased 12.4% from 1,755 to 1,973, the Months of Inventory decreased from 1.6 months to 1.4 months.

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 17.3% year-over-year (YoY) in March.  This was the elventh consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento.

Cash buyers accounted for 15.3% of all sales (frequently investors).

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