by Calculated Risk on 8/17/2016 09:25:00 AM

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 down 6.7% from July 2015, and conventional equity sales were down 4.2% compared to the same month last year.

In July, 4.9% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 5.0% last month, and down from 9.1% in July 2015, and the lowest level since Sacramento started tracking distressed sales.

The percentage of REOs was at 2.2% in July, and the percentage of short sales was 2.7%.

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 9.8% year-over-year (YoY) in June.  This was the fifteenth consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento.

Cash buyers accounted for 12.3% of all sales (frequently investors).

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