Moving in on Easter

As you know this year, Easter is this Sunday. Why is it so early this year? Easter always comes on the Sunday after the first, or Paschal, full moon following the first day of spring.

Spring arrives on Thursday and the moon will be full on Friday, the earliest Paschal moon since 1913. And that means Easter, the Christian holiday marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is this Sunday. It won't come this early again for another 220 or so years.

By the way, it turns out my “Irish Luck” story I posted on St. Patrick’s Day is not true, at least according to snopes.com. Oh well, it was a great story and we can now attribute it to some Irish blarney.

Sacramento Real Estate

The wonderful weather we have been enjoying the past few weeks appears to have coaxed some buyers out of the darkness. There has clearly been an increase in activity. We have seen our listing getting more showings in a week than we were seeing in January and February. One of our MagnumOne agents recently submitted an offer on a house for her clients and received a counter offer stating the home was in a multiple offer situation and to submit their “highest and best” offer. According to the seller’s agent the offer that was accepted was $13,000 above asking price.

While this may be wonderful news for sellers and does indicate the market is not dead, it will not be the norm even if we have more good weather. The number of homes on the market remains too high for the current level of demand. According to HousingTracker we have 11.5 percent more homes on the market in the Sacramento area than we had a year ago and although inventory appears to be growing at a slower rate than a year ago it will increase as we move into spring and summer. It is going to continue to be a difficult market for sellers even if a few homes hit the jackpot with multiple over asking price offers.