Published by the Sacramento Bee on 1/21/10
Sacramento area homeowners closed 40,534 escrows during 2009, falling just shy of the region's 2008 total, researcher MDA DataQuick reported Thursday.
In 2008 the region saw 41,030 closed escrows. Analysts say sales fell slightly in 2009 as cheap bank repos became a smaller part of the sales mix.
The year 2009 also ended with sales prices having fallen less than 1 percent in Sacramento County. The number represents a dramatic ending to the traumatic free falls that frightened area homeowners throughout 2007 and 2008.
Prices for new and existing homes combined fell just 0.6 percent in the county in 2009, DataQuick reported. That compared to a 36.8 percent plunge in 2008 and a 20 percent drop in 2007.
For the second straight month, DataQuick reported that median sales prices for existing homes in Sacramento County - the largest sector of the area real estate market - finished higher than the same time a year earlier. December sales prices were 2.4 percent higher than December 2008.
Altogether, 3,450 new and existing homes changed hands in December in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. That compared to 3,183 sales in November. December sales normally rise from November, DataQuick said.
New home sales accounted for 9 percent of total sales in the eight-county region. That's a steep decline from their 25 percent market share during the housing boom that spanned 2002 to 2006.
The sales and pricing numbers paint a definitive picture of a 2009 market prodded by government stimulus and an abundance of bank repos in its earliest months. Spring brought an $8,000 first-time homebuyer federal tax credit and several months of a similar $10,000 state tax credit for buyers of new unoccupied homes.
Analysts believe the new year may proceed with less artificial stimulus. The federal tax credit expires at the end of April. And Wednesday, the Federal Home Administration, which insures many first-time buyer loans, announced it will charge higher fees and require higher downpayments from buyers with credit scores below 580. At least 40 percent of Sacramento-area loans the past year have been FHA loans.
