Random Thoughts

I was doing my normal web surfing this week and came upon a cool real estate blog that finds and posts celebrity real estate listings. Some are clearly more interesting than others and most of the houses are fun to look at so I thought I’d pass the link along, Celebrity Listings.

I have been having some fun this past week helping a client negotiate a purchase of a home that is owned by the “bank.” In this particular situation the banks agent has asked us to negotiate verbally with him. When I give him our offer he evidently plugs it into a protected web page. Someone at the bank reviews the offer and then, as it has been all week, makes a counter. It is quick, with at least two of our counters responded to within hours. We got their latest counter on Friday and responded with another offer later in the day. I thought we might hear back from them before end of business but that did not happen so I suspect it will be Monday before we have the answer or counter. If we are able to reach an agreement the contract will be created and all parties will sign, at least that is the plan!

Inventory in the greater Sacramento area, according to HousingTracker, is up 3.6 percent in the past month but in the latest week, ending March 5 they show a decline of 170 available homes and the median asking price still at $400,000. Last year we saw inventory from this time grow to over 18,000 homes on the market. I do anticipate inventory to increase as we move into the spring selling season but do not believe we will see the same level of growth as we did last year. This year we appear to have more buyers.