What's in store?

We have been enjoying a few quiet moments this past week and reflecting on how our Sacramento real estate market has changed in the past year. The latest news in the media is how the national market is stabilizing and even showing modest growth. I have been saying it will take our market longer to recover because we outperformed most other parts of the country during the past several years. Surfing the web, I found a “bubble” site that compares the Sacramento housing market with national averages. There are some interesting numbers and I believe they provide a glimpse into what we may expect here during 2007. For the full story and links, see my column, “As the year ends” at Rocklin & Roseville Today.

Interesting Year

The past year, 2006, has been an interesting year when you consider we saw the housing market cool and in our local Sacramento area, rather dramatically. During 2006 we watched the stock market hit new highs, interest rates remained low in spite of many forecasts and US automakers had a difficult year. (full story)

Day After

This is the time of year that is supposed to bring peace, joy and happiness but it seems that occasionally with all the effort required to find these elusive elements there is a backlash. In the space of 24 hours before Christmas, we have two sets of friends who had near disasters. I am happy to report after trips to the hospital all are doing well.

We did have a wonderful relaxing day yesterday and are slowly starting to move towards getting back into the real world this week. I have a home inspection tomorrow, a potential buy client who wants to see one of my listings and my husband Michael has arranged a meeting with another local Realtor and blogger, John Lockwood over at Sacramento Real Estate Blog. We have been reading John’s blog for sometime and since we seem to have similar approaches to running our businesses, Michael thought it would be fun to meet John and his wife in person. I agree!

Surprised Realtor - Update

My clients have found another home and have it under contract. The seller’s agent has been easy to work with and is doing a superior job of keeping us informed. Finding this home and having the negotiations go smoothly has helped wash away the bad taste of dealing with an agent who missed deadlines and refused to communicate. B and K are very happy with the home, it is in a great Carmichael neighborhood, is large enough for their growing boys, and is well within their price range. With the holidays here, we have a longer than normal escrow, are not expecting any inspections issues and they will be moved into their new home by the end of January.

Just checked HousingTracker for Sacramento and see as of December 18 the inventory was down from the previous week by another 465 homes to 13,743. That is a drop in inventory of over 22 percent in the past three months.

Upside down buyer's market

You would think being a buyer in today’s Sacramento real estate market or as Santa’s helper this time of year would make purchasing an easy task. For me that has not been the case during the past week. My clients lost out on two houses they wanted and trying to help Santa find a Nintendo Wii in the Rocklin and Roseville area has proved to be impossible.

Multiple offers and a seller who changed their mind (you can read this as don’t trust other agent’s verbal promises) were the issues for my buyers and not enough Wii’s to meet the advertising demand our Santa’s problem. I thought I was clever in getting up early this morning and heading to Target at 7:00 AM for my Santa helper task. We were told they were going to have some Sunday morning. They did have 15 game consoles to sell but the folks who spent the night in front of the store got ‘em. Since I was there I stood in line, just in case but to no avail. I did hear some interesting stories about near riots at other stores and police having to be called to calm unhappy shoppers. The fifteen tired shoppers did look happy when they walked away with their new consoles.

Well, as I write this my clients are faxing a signed offer on yet another house, one which I think will make a great home for them. As for Santa, I think he will have to make another visit later in January with the Wii. Dear Mikie – Santa’s Sleigh was a bit too heavy this year so I will be back after my vacation to deliver the Nintendo Wii – Love Santa.

It is not always easy being a buyer!

Slow November Sales & SR Update

The Sacramento Bee’s Jim Wasserman published his monthly article on the Greater Sacramento real estate market today, “November home sales slow.” There were no surprises as he reported November sales volume was the lowest it has been in nine years and year-to-date sales of 38,208 in Sacramento and surrounding counties was 16,129 fewer than last year. In regards to median price the story also reported declines. The good news was the continued decline in inventory and some comments about where the market my go in 2007.

Surprised Realtor Update #1: Things have gone from bad to worse over the past two days. My clients did make a decision to respond to the sellers counter offer, which I believe was the right thing to do, and as with the original offer the “respond by” time came and went without a word from the seller’s agent. This morning I found a fax waiting for me rejecting our offer. Interestingly my clients are not disappointed because the seller’s agent’s lack of courtesy caused them to emotionally disengage from the property. The good news is they have another home that has moved to the top of their list.

Every agent knows that buying or selling a home is one of the largest and most important financial transactions most of us will ever be involved in during our lifetime. Knowing that, how can any agent fail to understand and treat the emotional side of this important transaction with such callous behavior?

Seller’s tip number 182: Make sure your agent knows how to use the telephone.

Real Estate Surprises

As a Realtor you never stop being surprised. Earlier this week, for one of my clients, I made an offer on a wonderful Sacramento area home. We have been looking for the perfect home during past several months. We finally found a house in their price range and met all of their needs. In today’s market where the numbers of sales are down and inventory is still high, I was shocked by how the listing agent chose to deal with our offer. For the full story see my column, “Surprised Realtor” in the real estate section of Rocklin & Roseville Today.

Fewer For Sale Signs in December

The busy holiday season is packed with so much to do but putting your house on the market does not appear to be one of them. As of December 11, HousingTracker is reporting there has been a one week drop of over 600 available homes in the Sacramento and Roseville area real estate market. This brings the total to 14,208 which is a 21 percent decline from the over 18,000 homes on the market in August. The one month decline is 9.1 percent. Although not unexpected during this time of the year, it remains good news for sellers.

As the inventory declines so too have asking prices. The median asking price as of December 11 was $410,000, down 1.2 percent from last month and off 4.1 percent from three months ago. The good news for sellers here is that the median asking price did not change from the previous week.

For more information check out my Keep it Real blog on my website at Jalone.com.

Surprisingly Busy

I had expected real estate activity in the Sacramento area to drop off after Thanksgiving but if anything it has picked-up. All of my listings have had showings in the past week, some multiple times. I am expecting to see at least one offer early this week and I have two buyers who are actively out looking for homes. I also met with a potential client yesterday that feels this is a good time to sell their existing home and buy one a bit larger in the same area. So much for thinking it was going to be a slow real estate month!

Can’t write more today, have a get some information on a heat pump and go see Santa!

Claim your home!

I kept thinking about Zillow and found an interesting blog in Arizona that was talking about the virtual “For Sale” signs and more. Take a look at my column, “Growing Zillow capabilities” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and learn more about how to claim your own home and how an Arizona real estate professional, Cathleen Collins feels about adding listings when the Zillow value is less than the for sale price.

If you live in Sacramento, Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Auburn or even in the Grass Valley area, check out my updated Holiday Happening page at jalone.com. I have a good number of holiday and Christmas events but if I have missed a favorite please let me know by sending the details to juliej@jalone.com.

Selling on Zillow

According to an LA Times article,”Zillow is for sales, not just snooping”, the popular website is now advertising houses for sale. Real estate website Zillow.com, which became an instant hit by telling homeowners — and their nosy neighbors — how much their houses might be worth, is now posting “For Sale” signs.

There has been a good deal of criticism about Zillow and other sites that post home values and the accuracy of the numbers but they do generate traffic so adding a virtual “For Sale” signs would seem to be of value. They actually are pretty cool, especially if you are selling a home for less than what Zillow has it valued! Take a look at my Sacramento listing in the Natomas neighborhood and let me know what you think.

Melrose Drive

Check out the new photos we took of my Melrose Drive listing in North Highlands. I am surprised this home has not sold yet. It is in a nice neighborhood, has all sorts of curb appeal and with the huge enclosed screen room has so much more livable space than the square footage would lead you to believe. The house, built in the 1950’s is being sold by the original owner who has maintained the home with love for all these years. If you know of anyone who is looking for a starter home or good investment property, have them take a look at this one. A referral to me of a buyer on this property will qualify you for our special award. See the back side of your December newsletter for details or contact me directly at juliej@jalone.com.

Inventory continues to decline

We are continuing to see a decline in the number of homes on the market in the Sacramento area. This has been a slow but steady drop since mid August when we saw record breaking numbers of homes and condos on the market. Take a look at my real estate column, “Fewer homes on the market in Sacramento area,” over at Rocklin and Roseville Today for the details.

We just finished the December issue of “Julie’s Newsletter” and it has some fun stories about the holidays, a few Christmas jokes and a house hunting tip. If you are not on our mailing list but would like to be, fill out this simple form and I will make sure you get this and future issues.

Time of year

If you are a serious home buyer the best time to buy is now. The reasons include there are fewer home buyers during the holiday season so competition is low, sellers who have their homes listed for sale now are usually highly motivated to sell and will listen to all reasonable offers and finally, mortgage rates are falling.

The lowest rate 30 year loans are down to 6 percent now and could be in the high five’s in the next few days.

Congratulations Michelle!

It is a great home and it was a blast helping Michelle find and purchase her new Rocklin home. Wow, I just counted seven transactions I have completed for single women in the past two years and not one for a single guy. Is it just me or are there more single women buying and selling homes? Take a look at my Rocklin & Roseville Today column, “More single women buying their own homes.” Well that title may have answered the question, but take a look anyway for some of the details.