Chico Real Estate Third Quarter Market Stats!

This week I'm looking at the third quarter of 2008's real estate statistics for single family residences in the six urban areas of Chico as reported in the Sierra North Valley MLS. During this time frame there were a total of one hundred ninety six homes which successfully closed escrow after an average day on the market (DOM) of 82. The average price this year for the third quarter was $307,680, which compared to 2007's third quarter average price of $359,510 reflects a drop of approximately 14%. The median price for this year's third quarter ended at $273,500-a drop of approximately 14%-from the third quarter 2007's median selling price of $320,500. Since the peak, which Chico experienced during the second quarter of 2006, Chico has experienced an overall decrease in value of approximately 20%.

I also wanted to share a bit of information on the ‘distressed property' market-that is homes that were sold either as a REO (Bank Owned) or as a short sale (seller selling for less than what their current mortgage is). During the first quarter of 2008, we had a total of one hundred twenty seven single family residences sold of those three homes were sold in a short sale situation and five were sold as REO which equates to about a ½% of listings sold. The second quarter had two hundred twenty three homes sold with a REO count of thirty five and a short sale count of nine totaling a distressed property percentage of approximately 19%. The third quarter with one hundred ninety six homes sold had forty five REO properties and twelve short sale properties successfully closing escrow which equals approximately 29% of homes sold to be in the category of ‘distressed'.

Currently there are a total of four hundred thirteen single family residences available for sale with fifty homes listed as short sales and another 27 listed as REO properties-or approximately 19% of our inventory under the classification of ‘distressed properties'.