Compare 2005 and 2017 Sacramento Real Estate Inventory

Housing supply in the United States for 2017.

This is the housing supply for our country today, from May of last year through April of 2017, courtesy of the National Association of Realtors. We are not an island in Sacramento. Low inventory is a factor in just about every major metropolitan city in America.

You know how Facebook and Photos, to mention a couple of places, shows you stuff from years ago as a blast from the past? Well, I’ve been yakking about the Sacramento real estate market inventory and how dire it is right now, often comparing it to 2005. Then it occurred to me that to properly put things into perspective, I should pull the charts.

In fact, I had an attorney try to argue with me the other day about selling his home in Sacramento. He told me the market isn’t hot. Wha? He mentioned low inventory and tried to make a case for nothing selling, when that is not the case at all. It’s true we have low inventory, but low inventory = high demand. We have so many buyers, buyers coming out of ears, and almost nothing to sell to them.

Below are comparisons I think you will find interesting:

12 months of inventory in 2005 for Sacramento County.

This chart shows inventory reaching a record high of 10,807 homes for sale in Sacramento County in October of 2005. This was a sorry state of affairs for Sacramento real estate inventory. We had too many homes for sale. The pending sales were falling and the sold sales were on a decline. The market seemed relatively normal in March. Pending sales were higher than the sold sales and then inventory began to climb.

Sacramento real estate inventory May 2016 to May 2017.

Look at the stark differences in today’s Sacramento real estate inventory. The sold sales are climbing. Inventory and pending sales are almost neck-to-neck, yet our available inventory is about 70% less than it was in 2005. Demand is very high. Inventory is very low. We need more homes to sell, plain and simple, to meet the pent-up demand from buyers.

Sacramento real estate inventory in the ZIP code for Elk Grove of 95757 for 15 months.

Isolating the situation even further, looking at this chart for ZIP code 95757 in Elk Grove, you can see this micro market up close and personal. Holy Toledo! Look at the pending sales in May. We closed 44 sales, 67 are pending yet our inventory is about half of our pendings! Those 67 pending sales are sitting up in the air on white space without enough existing inventory to support the demand for homes in Elk Grove.

Thank goodness I have a single story home in 95757 coming on the market this Friday. But it’s such a small dent.