New Pending Sales Keep Pressure on Housing Market

Open escrows in the upper end reach highest mark in 10 years

Resale housing inventory for the four-county Greater Sacramento region enjoyed a much needed 15 percent jump in April. The 3,880 active and available homes for sale at month-end also marked the highest inventory level since November. This market information was provided by Trendgraphix Inc., a Sacramento-based reporting company, and reported by Lyon Real Estate.

Buyer demand through new pending sales however, kept significant pressure on the market with 3,124 open escrows, the most for any one month in many years. This also followed strong open escrow levels for both March and April, indicating elevated closed sales will follow over the next few months.

The entry level price range below $350,000 saw 1,597 new listings hit the market in April but was competitively matched with 1,535 homes getting under contract. This left a sparse 1,083 homes active and available, or 21 days of inventory based upon the rapid rate of sales. Anything below 4 months of inventory is typically considered a seller’s market.

The move-up market, considered by many experts to be from $350,000 to $750,000, exhibited consistent momentum as well by posting a 20 percent increase in sales over March with just an 18 percent increase in inventory. This left 1.4 months of homes available for sale based upon the rate of new pending sales.

Inventory in the upper-end, specifically $750,000 and above, experienced two consecutive months of more than 300 new listings. Recent listing activity left a healthy 749 homes available for sale in the price range, the highest level since July of 2015. New open escrows however, reached 169 units in April, the most in any one month since spring of 2007.

“Our inventory struggle and record setting buyer demand are now creating upward pressure on all price points,” says Pat Shea, president of Lyon Real Estate. “The median sales price fluctuated between $325,000 and $335,000 for 11 straight months ending February. In March, the median jumped to $340,000 and now for April increased to $350,000. There is no doubt that our entire region is reaching new price levels but still remains almost 20 percent below the pre-recession highs of 2006.”

About TrendGraphix, Inc.

TrendGraphix, Inc. is a real estate reporting company based in Sacramento that uses local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data to provide highly-visual market statistical graphs to real estate brokers, agents, and MLS/Realtor associations across the country. TrendGraphix’s programs are currently used by tens of thousands of agents in more than 100 brokerages in 18 states. For more information about TrendGraphix, visit www.trendgraphix.com