The Real Folsom Blog

November Stats Point Towards Stabilization of Home Prices in Folsom

Another rally in November 2009 when the median price of homes sold in Folsom hit $365,500 (64 homes sold), up from $343,000 in October (76 homes sold). This rally is keeping with a pattern of one month up, one month down that seems to have characterized much of 2009. In the end, the price change was up just .04% from November 2008 when the median price of Folsom homes sold was $364,000. It is clear that despite the ups and downs from month to month, prices of residential properties overall have stabilized this past year in Folsom. This pattern may very well continue for a few years as typically prices don't rebound quickly after a bust. But then again nothing about this real estate bust has been typical so who knows how it will ultimately play out.

As for the other monthly Folsom market statistics, inventory is still tight (just 4.9 months versus 7 months of inventory back in November '08). Oddly enough, although the stats show a slight increase in supply during the past three months, the number of homes for sale on the last day of November (296) is the lowest since Jan. of '09 (288). In another interesting set of stats, the number of homes for sale was down 6.4% from a year ago, yet the number of homes sold was up 28% from a year ago and the number of homes under contract was up 27.7% over '08. That's all for today. Make it a great day!

I'm Surprised I Have Any Hair Left!

It was another hair-pulling, teeth-grinding kind of a week last week. The cause of my stress and frustration? Yet another short sale from hell. Not to say that there aren't short sales that go down smoothly (I can attest that some do go remarkably smoothly), but too many for my taste are still of the nightmarish variety. Case in point: I put in an offer on a short sale (close to asking price) for a client back in August. After the usual months' wait, we finally get approval from the short sale lender but at a price just above asking. And the word from the lender is "come up with the additional $$ or leave it." In the spirit of good will, my client squeezes out a few thousand more from a budget now so tight you couldn't get another penny out of it and the gap between the offer and the approval is barely $4K. And for $4K, the lender said no! They'd rather foreclose!!! With commissions already reduced by the lender, there is no room there to help close the gap. So my client had to walk from the deal and lose a much-wanted home. On what planet, I'd like to know, can it be a better deal for a bank to foreclose (and incur all the additional costs associated with foreclosure) than to take a deal that could have been closed by the end of this year. Yet another mystery of the short sale black hole--and a stressful one for everyone involved, mostly for the buyer who lost out on a home and a seller who just wants to move on.

Home Sales Stats Are In for October

Some mixed news from the latest monthly real estate stats for Folsom. Although the number of homes sold in October went up to 70 after a two-month drop, the median price was down to $347,500 after the nice spike in price we saw in September (when it went up to $375,000). Interestingly the median price of homes for sale in October (448 homes in all) saw no change from September (440 homes). Overall the median price of homes sold in October was down 8% from October a year ago. And although the number of homes for sale was down about 2% from October of '08, the percentage of homes that were under contract was up a healthy 30% from a year ago and the percentage of homes sold went up 4% during that same time period. The inventory is still pretty tight at 4.4 months supply of inventory in Folsom--not good news for buyers looking for selection. The average number of days (44) on the market of properties currently under contract (73) is down 28% from October '08 and reflects the tight inventory and the fact that buyers are having to move fast if they find a home they like that is well priced. That's all for today. Tomorrow, I'll start catching up with the recent sales in Folsom. That's what I get for going on vacation :-)

Folsom Home Sale Stats Are In for September

Finally some good news! After a three-month slide, the median sale price for a Folsom home swung up to $375,166 in September. In August the median price was at $340,000. The number of homes sold stayed steady at 60. Overall the September median price was down 17% from September 2007 when the median price was $449,500 on the sale of 40 homes. As far as new listings: 112 new properties came on the market (this number has been running steady for about 9 months now). During September, 439 residential properties were on the market, 73 went under contract and 60 sold.

As far as the supply and demand numbers, these are interesting. Although the total number of homes for sale was down 28% from two years ago, the number of homes that were put under contract went up 78% from Sept. '07. Currently the months supply of inventory for Folsom is at 4.3 months, down from a supply of 5.5 months in August. The months supply of inventory indicates how long it would take to sell all the homes on the market if no new listings occurred. And, finally, on average it's taking just a little over two months for a home to sell, at 68 days.That's all for today!

Quick Snapshot of the Folsom Real Estate Market

We appear to be on cruise control this week in Folsom when it comes to real estate. In fact, I ran the numbers twice just to confirm they were correct. Here is where we are this gorgeous Fall Monday morning: there were still 305 properties for sale, still ranging in price from $95,000 to $2,500,00 and still with a median price of $379,900. The average days on the market did drop from 91 last week to 86 days. Of those 305, 143 are short sales (up 4 from last week) and 25 are bank-owned (1 up from last week). So as you can see not much change from last week. And still just over 50 percent of the properties selling in Folsom right now are distressed sales. That's it for the quick snapshot of Folsom real estate this Monday morning. Make it a fabulous day!

Folsom Real Estate this Sept 28 '09

Finally! We are getting some cooler, actually fall-worthy, weather. As of this morning, there were 305 properties for sale (up 5 from last week), ranging in price from $95,000 to $2,500,00 and with a median price of $379,900 (no changes here) and an average days on the market of 91. Of those 305, 139 are short sales and 24 are bank-owned. Still just over 50 percent of the properties selling in Folsom right now are distressed sales. The bank-owned properties range from $140,000 to $695,900 and have a median sales price of $339,900. And the short sale properties range from $95,000 to $810,000. That's it for the quick snapshot of Folsom real estate this Monday morning.

Real Estate Market Snapshot This Monday, Sept 21

It's been a while since I took a quick snapshot of the Folsom real estate market. I find them useful to get an overview of what's going on in town. As of this morning, there were 300 properties for sale in Folsom, ranging in price from $95,000 to $2,500,00 and with a median price of $379,900. Of those 300, 139 are short sales and 25 are bank-owned. So just over 50 percent of the properties selling in Folsom right now are distressed sales. The bank-owned properties range from $249,900 to $895,900 and have a median sales price of $339,900. And the short sale properties range from $95,000 to $810,000. Here is where the numbers get interesting--the median price of the short sales is $320,000, almost $20K below REOs! Are the short sales a better deal than the bank-owned properties right now? In some cases, yes. So, as a buyer, if you can afford to wait around for one of these short sales to close, it is worth your while to at least check them out.

August '09 Real Estate Stats Are In for Folsom

Looks like August was not such a hot month after all. The median price of homes sold in Folsom in August dipped to $340,000--the second lowed monthly median price in the last two years. The record for low median price is still January of this year when it hit $320,500. Overall the median price of homes sold is down 23% from two years ago. The number of homes sold last month (57) was also markedly down from the 80 Folsom homes sold in July and the 70 sold in June. Where will this end? Wouldn't we all like to know. This has been one of those very-tough to predict markets from the get-go. Interestingly the actual number of homes sold this August is only down 5 percent from August 2007 when 60 homes sold. The dramatic difference comes in the number of Folsom homes for sale in 2007 (647) versus the number for sale this August (432). So people are still buying, they just have less selection to work with (which is why the average days on the market for homes sold dipped to 47 days). Now for potential sellers who have good equity in their home and can afford to sell, this shows there is demand out there. And, finally going hand in hand with those statistics is the Months' Supply of Inventory. The number is down 43% from two years ago when we had about 10 months' supply of inventory in Folsom. Although the supply has been inching up a bit (we're now at 5.7 months, up from last month's 5 months' supply). That's it for the look at the real estate market statistics for Folsom. Will be interesting to see what September brings, as traditionally fall sees a slow down of activity. But as I said earlier who can predict anything anymore in this market!

Are Home Prices Headed for a Drop This Fall?

The answer to that question is: maybe. According to a new study by the real-estate research firm, LPS Applied Analytics, it will depend in large part on how many foreclosed homes the banks pull out of their ever-increasing shadow inventory and put on the market this fall. The firm confirmed an obvious truth to many of us that more foreclosures on the market result in lower price. The LPS study looked at the link between sales of bank-owned foreclosures and the rate of home price declines and showed that states that haven't had as many foreclosures have seen less severe declines in home prices. This study is worth paying attention to, especially in an area like Sacramento hard hit by foreclosures. By the way in California the bank-owned home share of sales is at 50%! We are much better off in Folsom, where of 718 sales recorded by the MLS between Sept 1 '09 and Aug 31 '09, 217 sales were REOs--or bank-owned homes.

Blame it on Summer!

Yes, that's my (lame) excuse for being a wee bit late with the Folsom July real estate stats. But as late is better than never, here goes the rundown of what the July stats tell us about our local market.

Although the overall number of homes on the market was down 31% (at 426) from July 2007 (at 614), interestingly the number of homes sold (79) was up 7% from two years ago and the number of homes that were put under contract was up 10% during that time. And this month also showed more clearly a continuation of the very, very slow upswing in the number of homes sold during the past year. The less good news (at least for sellers) is that the median price of sold homes dipped to $351,000 from June's $363,962. Not to panic though as that median price has been yo-yoing during the past year. Overall, the median price of homes sold in Folsom was down 25.2% from July 2007.So how about the supply of inventory? It continues to remain tight with 4.9 months' suppply--a whopping 39% dip from the inventory we had two years ago. And as far as days on the market: the 79 properties that were sold in July were on the market an average of 63 days.

Those are the broad strokes of the market stats. If you'd like details on any of these, just drop me a line and I'll be glad to fill you in.