Julie Jalone

I started to blog about some of the November results for our local Sacramento real estate market and quickly became bored. For anyone who reads a newspaper or listens to the news there is nothing new to report. Generally sales are up, median prices and average price per square foot are down. About the only thing of much interest is the number of default filings have dropped, but may be the result of a new state law requiring lenders to contact homeowners who are delinquent on the payments, then wait 30 days before filing a default notice.

As we move into 2009 the inventory of homes for sale has continued the slow decline from the highs we experienced in the summer of 2007 when it was reported by HousingTracker that there were over 18,000 homes for sale in what they define as the Sacramento area. Even with the increased number of foreclosures the inventory of homes has continued to decline and as of mid-December stood at 12,628 down almost 23 percent from a year ago and down 5.9 percent in the past month.

As we move into the spring selling season I would expect to see the decline in homes on the market slow or even increase. There are still way too many houses on the market for the number of buyers but the good news is we are headed in the right direction to achieve a balanced market and some price stability.

If you are interested in more specific numbers about the Sacramento, Roseville or other local communities send me an email to juliej@jalone.com and I would be happy to answer.

Happy New Year! Here we are at the final day in 2008 and looking forward to the hope of a new year. Whatever your plans are for this evening, be careful on the roads, last night was super foggy here in the Roseville area and will most like not be much better tonight.

There were some great times and occurrences this past year but it was also one of the most difficult years I have had in real estate. There were plenty of clients but getting transactions completed was more difficult than in years past and much more difficult than they should have been. Check out my weekly column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today, "Sacramento Real Estate: Where are we going?" and see where I think our Sacramento real estate market is headed in 2009.

Just when I thought we might start seeing a decline in the number of homeowners who are facing foreclosure the next wave came crashing in. The new wave is a combination of more homeowners who have experienced a financial setback such as a lost job or reduced income combined with continuing declines in home values. A married couple with two incomes making their payments all of a sudden are struggling to when one of them loses their job have lost their option to sell their house, pay down credit card debt and move to more affordable housing because their home is worth less than they owe. Check out my weekly column, Sacramento Short Sales, over at Rocklin & Roseville Today for some of the reasons these homeowners and others should consider a short sale as an alternative to foreclosure.

It very nice to see a break in the warm weather and even to get a bit of rain but I am happy to see we will be getting some nice warm days this week as we move deeper into October.

Over at MagnumOne Realty we had a strong past week with some new listings and some nice escrow closings. One of the joys of this business is to complete a sale for my clients and this past week it was fun to see my customers from the southern part of the state move into their new home here in Roseville.

Even with bailout legislation we are still anticipating seeing the Sacramento area foreclosures continuing to be a significant part of our local real estate market. This means we will continue to help clients avoid foreclosure by representing them on short sales in Sacramento. I will be adding three new short sale listings during the next week.

Our team is getting very good at working with the lenders to get these short sales completed but there is nothing easy about the process. One of our short sales is being caused by the seller being transferred out of state to maintain employment. For some bizarre reason their lender, who has the completed short sale package we prepared, sent the loan to HOPE where they specialize in finding a way to keep the homeowner in their homes by restructuring the loan. When they have to move to keep a job, this is not exactly what they need and could cause a delay of up to two weeks in getting an answer to our short sale request. Even when you call the lenders as often as we do to keep the process on track, some still find ways to "drop the ball."

After the failed vote on the financial rescue plan on Monday the Senate takes the spotlight today and is likely to pass a slightly revised plan to provide liquidity back to the credit markets. I predict an embarrassed House of Representatives will place their rubber stamp on the bill and we will have legislation by the end of the week.

How will this impact the Sacramento real estate market and the recovery that is taking place? Take a look at my column, "Bailout may slow Sacramento real estate recovery," over at Rocklin & Roseville Today.