California Sales and Price - March

We know about our area and the story is similar for the State, March home buying volume was up from February but behind the pace of a year ago and prices rose but not as fast. Yesterday the California Association of REALTORS (CAR) reported the median price of an existing home in California increased 13 percent in March and sales decreased 15.1 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

They went on to say that the pace of sales appears to be picking up and many buyers who had adopted a `wait-and-see' approach with respect to interest rates earlier this year realize that while rates are higher than they were six months or a year ago, they still remain just above historically low levels. Personally, I am not feeling as optimistic yet and feel that there are still many potential buyers who continue to believe prices are going to drop and the higher interest rates only make their view of the market easier to live with.

I might be feeling as optimistic as the economists with CAR if our inventory of available homes had followed the State results which reported inventory of homes fell from 6.6 month supply in February to 4.8 months in March. Even with increased sales volume our Sacramento area inventory continued to grow.
Check back tomorrow and I will walk through more of the statewide numbers and examine where the most expensive homes in the State are and which areas experienced the highest price appreciation last month.

If you want to read the full report it is available on the CAR website, March 06 sales/price report.