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By Jim Wasserman
jwasserman@sacbee.com Published: Friday, May. 21, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 6B Last Modified: Friday, May. 21, 2010 - 4:15 pm
More people bought pricier houses in April, signaling the end of Sacramento's bargain basement-only sales scene.
Buyers picked up the pace from last year in Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills and older neighborhoods near downtown Sacramento, researcher MDA DataQuick reported Thursday. Simultaneously, buyers dwindled in Oak Park, North Highlands and other repo zones of the past two years.
What gives?
There are fewer available repos after a long blowout sale, market trackers say. There's also a sense at the higher end that this market is as good as it's going to get for a while.
"Sellers are becoming more realistic (about) what they can get," said Tim Collom, a Sacramento real estate agent who specializes in east Sacramento, Land Park and Curtis Park. "The gap between buyers and sellers is a lot more narrow than last year."
He said he sold three houses this week valued between $350,000 and $800,000.
The shifting sales mix tugged Sacramento County's median sales price for resale houses nearly 10 percent higher than the same time last year, DataQuick reported. The median, where half cost more and half less, was $175,000.
Resale home prices also beat April 2009 levels in Placer, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
Less than half of Sacramento County's April sales were cheap bank repos - compared with two-thirds a year earlier. With fewer repos this year, sales in the $200,000 to $400,000 range grabbed a larger market share.
"We've had 70 people coming through open houses in the $300,000 to $400,000 range," said Bob Bronswick, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.
"That's the trend across the state," said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. He said sellers are cutting prices and buyers are still getting low interest rates to make deals work.
"Sellers are not thinking about 2005," said Collom of Windermere Dunnigan Realtors. "They're thinking: 'We might have to take it back to 2003 or 2002 prices and sell it at that.'"
This doesn't mean expensive is back. LePage said homes priced above $400,000 are only a tiny percentage of Sacramento-area sales.
But the shift is part of restoring balance to a market where repos accounted for a majority of sales for much of 2008 and 2009. Banks have cut repossessed homes on the market.
"The way banks are managing it now will probably keep prices from falling much further," said Rick Sharga of Orange County foreclosure analyst RealtyTrac.
Overall, 3,255 homes changed hands during April in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, DataQuick reported. That was down slightly from March - and fewer than April 2009.
Analysts attributed the slight drop to fewer repo listings for first-time buyers and people delaying escrow closings until May. The state began offering homebuyer tax credits of up to $10,000 May 1.
New homes accounted for 5 percent of sales in the region.
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