Like many other cities, particularly highly populated ones in California, Sacramento's real estate market suffered in 2008 and 2009 as the effects of the U.S. recession, financial crisis and housing market bubble burst began to set in. Since the declines began, however, the city has seen light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Values that plummeted are now slowly edging their way back up, and inventory is starting to slide back down as more homes clear the market and fewer are put up for sale.
According to the statistics compiled and published by the Sacramento Association of Realtors, December 2009 showed some positive monthly signs, even if the market is not out of the woods yet. In December, there were more than 1,600 homes sold, which is actually a decline of 14.7% from the same month in 2008, when nearly 2,000 were sold. Sacramento homes in December 2009 had a median sales value of $187,500, up a slight 0.3% from November's figures and up 4.2% from December 2008, showing that it may take a long creeping of increases for values to reach levels of old. The largest portion of the homes sold in December were in the $200,000 to $249,999 bracket, followed by the next highest bracket, $250,000 to $299,999.
For condos, the largest portion sold were in the $120,000 to $139,999 range. The Sacramento real estate market of condos continued to show signs of weathering the storm. There were 114 condos closed on in December, a decrease in volume of 8.1% over 2008. The median price was $100,001, up by 7.5% from December 2008's median sales price of $93,000. The average price remained nearly constant from 2008 at $125,387, down less than $200. Most of the condo sales, nearly 46%, were of condos repossessed and resold by the lenders.
For all of 2009, there were 20,910 closed escrows on homes, a slight increase of 1.6% from 2008, when 20,587 homes changed hands. Though more homes were sold, however, the total dollar value for those sold homes actually declined 13.3%, showing that many of the homes that were sold this year were done so at a lower price. For the whole of the year, the median sales price was $180,000, 16.3% lower than the median price of $215,000 in 2008.