by Calculated Risk on 8/18/2017 02:57:00 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 several 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.

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 0.7% from July 2016, and conventional equity sales were up 5.0% compared to the same month last year.

In July, 2.4% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 3.2% last month, and down from 4.9% in July 2016.

The percentage of REOs was at 1.3%, and the percentage of short sales was 1.1%.

Sacramento Realtor Press Release: July sees decrease in sales volume; inventory, price increase

July ended with a 10.4% decrease in sales, down from 1,824 to 1,634. Compared with 2016, current number is .7% higher than the 1,622 sales for that month. Equity sales for the month reached a high point, accounting for 97.2% (1,588) of the sales this month. REO/bank‐owned and Short Sales made up the difference with 22 sales (1.3%) and 18 sales (1.1%) for the month, respectively.
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The decrease in sales for the month and increase in active listings raises the Months of Inventory, which showed a 25% increase from 1.2 Months to 1.5 Months. A year ago the Months of inventory was 1.7. Total Active Listing Inventory increased 13.8% from 2,105 to 2,395. This current figure is down 14.5% from the 2,801 listings of July last year.

The Average DOM (days on market) remained at 18 from June to July.
emphasis added

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 14.5% year-over-year (YoY) in June.  This was the 27th consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento.

Cash buyers accounted for 13.8% of all sales - this has been generally declining (frequently investors).

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