by Calculated Risk on 10/13/2017 02:30:00 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 September, total sales were down 5.3% from September 2016, and conventional equity sales were down 1.0% compared to the same month last year.

In September, 2.2% of all resales were distressed sales. This was down from 2.5% last month, and down from 4.5% in September 2016.

The percentage of REOs was at 1.0%, and the percentage of short sales was 1.2%.

Sacramento Realtor Press Release: Sales volume drops for September, sales price stalls

Septemberendedwitha10%decrease in sales,downfrom1,734to 1,5260.Compared withSeptember2016, current number is a 5.3 %decrease from the 1,647sales for that month. Equity sales for the month reached a high point, accounting for 97.8% (1,526)of the sales this month. REO/bank-owned and Short Sales made up the difference with 16 sales(1%) and 18 sales (1.2%) for the month, respectively.
...
Active Listing Inventory increased slightly, rising 1.2% from 2,593 to 2,625. The Months of Inventory increased from 1.5 to1.7 Months. A year ago the Months of inventory was also 1.7 and Active Listing Inventory stood at 2,774 listings.
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 5.4% year-over-year (YoY) in September.  This was the 29th consecutive monthly YoY decrease in inventory in Sacramento.

Cash buyers accounted for 12.9% 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.