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Sacramento County Housing Report for January 2020
The Sacramento County Housing Report for January 2020 includes Sacramento County single-family homes. No other criteria are included in this particular report so that we can get a broad understanding of what is happening in our area. If you want to get updates for a specific area, even down to a ZIP code or multiple ZIP codes, or multi-family properties or land, sign up for Sacramento Home Sale Reports by ZIP Code.
One of the most important metrics in the Sacramento County Housing Report for January 2020 is that single-family homes are selling faster. The graph below shows 39 days is the average time on the market. Homes are selling close to the seller’s asking price. The green line below shows homes are selling at 98% of asking price, which is also higher than they were in January 2019. Are you writing offers? Are they in line with what sellers are asking?
The silver lining for buyers is that the median home price for Sacramento County dropped in January 2020 to $375,000. This is a 2.6% drop from December. But, that is still a 6.2% increase from January 2019 as depicted by the blue graph below. If you haven’t found your dream house, you may have an uphill battle, especially in the median price points. Our advice is to hire an exclusive buyer’s agent to help you navigate in this highly competitive seller’s market.
Shop a location you believe will be good for you and your family. Sellers are less likely to do repairs in this market and will be looking for as-is offers. You can earn sweat equity buy fixing up your home slowly over time, within your budget. There are plenty of quality vendors out there looking for work.
The new listings rebounded in January, up a whopping 71.5% from December 2019, but still down 7.6% from January 2019. This brought the total available inventory in Sacramento county to an anemic 1,233 homes, a 1.7% increase from December’s low. Hey, we’ll take what we can get! (See the green graph featured at top of the blog post). If you would like to see a quick but informative guided video presentation of the trends housing report for this month, click here, Video link.
— Written by, Josh Amolsch
If you want an edge in this extremely competitive market, call Wallace & Weintraub Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759. We have been helping buyers & sellers for decades
Exclusive Buyer’s Agents and Pismo Beach
Exclusive Buyer’s agents and Pismo Beach, what do they have in common? Well for starters in this photo is our fabulous exclusive buyer’s agent, Josh Amolsch. Josh works with our buyers full time. He is always hunting for just the perfect home for our buyers, 7 days a week. Not only is he out in the field hunting up new business, additionally he calls his contacts and keeps in touch with his sphere of influence. He is committed to maintaining close relationships with his happy clients and providing ongoing quality support and service, long after the escrow closes.
Josh has had an incredible third quarter and he still has a month to go. He closed out some very nice escrows and is bringing several new listing opportunities to the team. I like to say our buyer’s agents always work hard to keep the fuel flowing for the mother ship. The mother ship of Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, that is.
It takes a large budget to operate a first-class Realtor team. Realtors spend big dollars for numerous website memberships reaching buyers searching for Sacramento Realtors. As top listing agents, we spend huge investment dollars for advertisement on our listings. Additionally, we have employee salaries, transaction coordinator fees, Realtor fees, errors and omissions insurance. Let us not forget the costs of ever-increasing health insurance. Speaking of health insurance, it is always a good thing to have when riding motor equipment on the beach!
Josh is married to his beautiful bride, Vika. Josh and Vika in photo above, are seen with their 2 dogs. They all look so happy, and that’s because taking a mini road trip is important when you work so hard. Even the dogs, Zorro ad Oso look happy. These photos are of them celebrating a quick trip away. Don’t let Josh taking time off fool you; he has a phone and a laptop. Josh puts homes in escrow and works on business development no matter where he is. Such as, he brought in 3 potential listings for our team to work on this week.
In the last photo, Josh and Vika closed out an amazing time looking at the sunset on Pismo Beach. If you are hunting for a top buyer’s agent who is not only fun to spend time with but also tech savvy, reliable, experienced, caring and an excellent negotiator, call Josh Amolsch.
To buy or sell real estate, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors at RE/MAX Gold Sierra Oaks. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
–JaCi Wallace
Five Smart Homebuying Tips for Our Fall Sacramento Market
Are you looking for homebuying tips to buy a home in our fall Sacramento real estate market? As a potential home buyer, you are now in a wonderful position to buy a home. Some of you got too frustrated with the market and gave up. Maybe it’s time to give the market another look? Because our seller’s market is over. O.V.E.R. Except for a small handful of picture-perfect listings, you probably will not encounter multiple offers for a home you want to buy.
I could give you all the reasons why the market has changed, but not everyone is interested in how we got here or the stats. Most buyers just want to know what they need to do buy a home. They want to be aware of the types of benefits can get they out of today’s market.
Of course, if you are already working with the exclusive buyer’s agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, then you’re covered. Your buyer’s agent is already informing you of the choices awaiting your decision. Here are my top 5 homebuying tips that you can confidently put to use when you’re ready to buy.
Homebuying Tips for Sacramento’s Fall Market
- Price. Most listings will contain a bit of room for negotiation. It might not be necessary to offer list price for the home, unless you are madly in love with it. You can probably offer less and still buy the home. Ask your agent to show you comparable sales. This means considering homes in the same condition, square footage, location and comparing the pricing. Look at apples versus apples and not apples versus oranges.
- Closing Costs. If you’re a first-time home buyer, you might be using every dime you have saved up to buy a home. With an FHA loan, your down payment can be 3.5% of the purchase price. We have conventional loans from 3% down. Does that leave you with enough money to pay closing costs? If not, don’t sweat it, as many sellers in this real estate market will agree to pay your closing costs for you, provided the sellers are content with the sales price offered.
- Repairs and Updates. Believe it or not, sellers want to work with you. If the home has no AC, for example, the seller might be willing to install new AC for you. Don’t be put off by carpeting because you can generally work out a way for it to make it vanish. Ask your buyer’s agent for ideas and help. We had a seller recently agree to install new granite counters at closing. Sellers generally will not fix or repair every single defect from a home inspection. But a major repair will most likely get fixed.
- Inspections. It is possible in our fall market that sellers might obtain inspections at their own expense. For example, it is more common now for the seller to pay for a pest report, and most buyers would ask for a completion certificate. This did not happen very often in a seller’s market but now that we are entering a more neutral market, sellers are more agreeable. They don’t want surprises that will blow up a transaction any more than you do.
- Time of Year. With our increased inventory in Sacramento, home buyers have more options now than ever. If you don’t like a particular house, don’t buy it. There will be another right around the corner. As we move toward the holidays, prices will become softer. This is a much better time to buy a home than spring, when you compete with a larger group of buyers. You have little competition now.
With all of these benefits, buyers are finally in a position to feel really good about buying a home. The only question left lingering is whether it’s better to buy now or wait until spring. Apart from the increased competition in spring, you will also see interest rates rise. The Feds have already raised the rates, and they are inching toward 5%. Buy now before you get roped into a higher interest rate mortgage because this much is pretty certain. Interest rates are not coming back down.
To get started, all you have to do is call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Tips for Relocating to Sacramento and Buying a Home
Relocating to Sacramento is hard enough without worrying about your Realtor.
If you’re thinking about relocating to Sacramento, you’ve definitely come to the right place. As a new buyer to the area, you owe it to yourself to find exclusive representation through a knowledgable agent. It’s a little bit harder than you would think to do it on your own. Further, there is no need to subject yourself to that kind of misery when you can align yourself with an expert for free. The problem is everybody and his uncle claims to be an expert in real estate. So, how can you tell if you’re talking with an agent who will make relocating to Sacramento easy and fun for you?
For starters, listen to your gut instincts. If something makes you feel uneasy or uncomfortable, that could be a red flag. If you ask questions and receive no satisfactory answers, that’s also a red flag. Bottom line, you’re probably not buying a home in Sacramento unless you accept representation by an agent. Since you deserve the best (and I believe you do) then you should read on to find out what you can expect.
I talk with a lot of buyers in the beginning stages of relocating to Sacramento. Generally it’s because they call on a specific home and my name pops up. My name pops up even though I might not be the listing agent. I enjoy extensive exposure online, pretty much unparalleled as compared to your average Sacramento Realtor. One fellow called and insisted on buying a home in a “safe” neighborhood. Even after I explained that agents cannot violate Fair Housing laws nor steer buyers. On top of which a safe neighborhood is a subjective term, he tried to rephrase it another way as in: “would you live in that neighborhood.”
Jokingly, I told him not to ask a Realtor that question because agents will tell him every neighborhood is a good place to live. Because it is for somebody. And you’ll find some suburban people afraid to go Downtown Sacramento because they will run into homeless people. Yet Downtown and Midtown Sacramento are both super hot neighborhoods where people move into and don’t leave. Highly desirable, even with a rather visible homeless population. I referred him to the sacpd.org website where he can poke around on crime maps to his heart’s delight.
Another relocation buyer today called about buying a home in Elk Grove. Her husband just got transferred here. I list a lot of homes in that neighborhood, so I know the builder’s reputation and the individual models. She had been working with an agent on the coast south of San Francisco and thought she should ask if that agent will work in Elk Grove. I told her that’s highly unlikely an agent would drive for three hours to work in a neighborhood she doesn’t know, through a Board she doesn’t belong to, because we would not compromise our integrity in that fashion.
Little-known fact, if the Bay Area agent does not pay dues as a member of our MLS she has no commission protection. Further, the buyer deserves local representation. But she gets kudos for talking to her previous agent about it. Definitely. We value loyalty as well.
The Elizabeth Weintraub Team works in a four-county area. We’re one of the few groups of buyer’s agents in Sacramento who possess intimate knowledge of many different areas. We are perfect to help those relocating to Sacramento. We can talk your head off about various neighborhoods, recite historic facts, accurately explain architectural styles, disclose unusual factors affecting the neighborhoods, and we are excellent negotiators.
To get a feel for us and what we can do for you, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. You can choose anybody, why not choose one of the time proven and trusted best? We are Sacramento’s relocation experts.
Reasons to Buy a Home in Curtis Park Neighborhood of Sacramento
The unique architecture of homes in Curtis Park will capture your heart.
Today my blog is a little bit different. I am featuring a member of the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, Exclusive Buyer’s Agent, Amy McMullan. In Amy’s first year of real estate, she sold 15 homes, if that gives you an idea of how well this super star adapted to the world of Sacramento real estate. Most agents in their first year are lucky to sell 2 or 3 homes, and some never ever sell more annually. Amy offers compassion, enthusiasm and a strong commitment to ensuring client satisfaction and happiness.
I asked Amy if she would like to write about her neighborhood and tell you in her own words why you might want to buy a home in Curtis Park and what she loves personally about her community:
Amy McMullan Explains Why You Should Buy a Home in Curtis Park
Amy McMullan, Exclusive Buyer’s Agent, Elizabeth Weintraub Team.
“Once you have lived in Curtis Park, you will find it hard to live anywhere else in Sacramento. Curtis Park is the neighborhood between Broadway (N), Sutterville Rd.(S), Franklin Blvd. (E) and the railroad tracks (W) within the 95818 zip code.
When I moved to Sacramento in 2004, I fell in love with Curtis Park. I did my best to bid on a few “fixers” in the area, but I was priced out and ended up settling for Midtown. After living in Midtown for over a year I got a call from my trusty agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, alerting me to a new listing on Portola Way. The house turned out to need a total remodel (down to the studs). I ended up buying it and completing a full remodel, which was worth every penny when the house appraised for much more than the purchase price plus remodel cost. After living in this home for years, I couldn’t believe how happy I felt enjoying the good life in Curtis Park.
The Curtis Park neighborhood is reminiscent of Marin County. The streets are lined with old growth trees, the park itself is lush and dramatic, and the neighbors are known for being progressive and open minded. This is not a place where most people buy their first home; the average selling price of a home in this area is $575,000. But it is a place of enchantment, where one can live in a distinctive yet mindful neighborhood nestled in the heart of the city. If you buy a home in Curtis Park, you might never leave.
This neighborhood is walking distance from Gunther’s Ice Cream, Pangea Bier Cafe, Café Dantorels, Curtis Park Market, Track 7 Brewing Company, Taylors Market and Taylor’s Kitchen, the delicious and seductive Freeport Bakery, and Chocolate Fish Coffee (coming soon). This neighborhood is also serviced by the 4th Ave / Wayne Hultgren light rail station on 21st and 4th making this one of the easiest neighborhoods to safely and easily access public transit.
Curtis Park is one of the only neighborhoods in Sacramento with a dedicated arts and community center, the Sierra 2 Center at 2791 24th St. This vintage Mission style building is home to the Sierra Curtis Park Neighborhood Association and offers yoga classes, art and music classes for children and adults, activities for seniors, and hosts dozens of events and benefits throughout the year.
This building also houses the 24th Street Theater, hosting year-round concerts, dance performances, intimate musicals and plays. Neighbors who are in-the-know gather daily for an “unofficial” dog park in the expansive fields behind the Sierra 2 Center.
For the history buffs, Curtis Park was built on a 200-acre farm established in 1852. The neighborhood itself did not begin to take form until 1887. Because much of the subdivision development took place before significant dam infrastructure was complete in 1915, there are many high-water bungalow style homes in this neighborhood.
You can learn more about the history of Curtis Park in a splendid book titled, Sacramento’s Curtis Park by Dan Murphy, published by Arcadia Publishing. If you would like to know more reasons to buy a home in Curtis Park, please call Amy McMullan from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.737.6664.”
More photos of Curtis Park © Sacramento Realtor Amy McMullan:
Cafe Dantorels offers casual dining, take-out or delivery in Curtis Park.
Home in Curtis Park near the Park and Curtis Way.
Sierra 2 Center and 24th Street Theatre showcases local and international talent.
Classic vintage home in Curtis Park boasts spring flowers.
William Curtis Park is 18.57 acres, 2 tennis courts, basketball, picnic grass and one-mile walking trail.
