Friday before Christmas!

Today is the last school day before Christmas vacation for Mikie and most kids; do you remember how great that felt?

Here in the Sacramento real estate market we are not following the law of supply and demand which says as supply declines demand increases. In real estate this would normally mean as the inventory of homes for sale declines the asking prices of those on the market would increase. For the past seven weeks according to HousingTracker inventory of homes for sale has been declining but there has been no sign of asking prices increasing or even firming. In the last month alone, inventory has dropped over 6 percent. During that time asking prices have fallen 4.2 percent which is even faster than the three month figure of 9.6 percent.

Looking back a year, although we are seeing declines in the current inventory of available homes, we still have over 19 percent more homes on the market now. The median asking price which currently stands at $334,500 is down 18.2 percent from a year ago.

By the way, the tax break for mortgage loan debt forgiveness I mentioned several months ago has now become a law. This is a pretty nice Christmas present for those folks who were able to complete short sales this past year.

Last but not least, only 4 shopping days until Christmas. There is always more to do so the only time I know I am done getting ready for Christmas is when time runs out!