My name is Terri Briggs and I’m happy to be writing a blog for New Homes Directory. Each month I’ll be giving you information on the Elk Grove real estate market. I hope you find this information helpful.  In addition to statistical information about the market, I will provide you with my perspective, as well as any other opinions or information which I think will be helpful to you.  So with that, let’s look at September 2011:

Property Sales:  In September property sales were 292, up 16.3% from September 2010 and 11.9% higher than August 2011.  September YTD sales of 2,401 are running 8.6% ahead of last year’s year-to-date sales.

Prices: The median sales price was $210,000 which was down 5.8% from September 2010 and up 1.4% from August 2011.  The average sales price in September 2011 was $223,825, down 5.6% from September 2010 and down 0.1% from last month.

Inventory:  The total inventory of properties available as of September 2011 was 989, down 22.2% from September 2010 and down 9.3% from August 2011.  The month’s supply of inventory stood at 3.4 months in September 2011.

Market Time:  The average days on market for September 2011 was 78, up 2.6% from September 2010 and up 8.3% from August 2011.

Price Per Square Foot:  The selling price per square foot is a great indicator of the direction of property values.  Since median sales price and average sales price can be impacted by the “mix” of high or low end properties on the market, the selling price per square foot is a more normalized indicator on the direction of property values.  The September 2011 selling price per square foot of $107 was  

7.0% down from September 2010 and down 2.7% from August 2011.

New Homes:  In spite of the number of foreclosures in Elk Grove, there is still new home development and there is quite a bit of building occurring in those subdivisions.

Foreclosures: Elk Grove has been hit very hard with foreclosures.  There are currently 1,200 properties in foreclosure but there were only 57 foreclosure sales in the month of September.  The banks appear to be trying to get loan modifications to work or are postponing foreclosure sales for other reasons.  Foreclosures made up about 32% of the closed sales in September.

The increase in property sales shows there is a consistent demand for homes but inventory levels remain very low.  I see many buyers ready to buy, but unable to find the home they want.  This trend will probably continue through 2012 until the foreclosures are stabilized. 

Thanks for reading my blog.  Give me a call if you want to discuss Elk Grove real estate.

Terri Briggs

Coldwell Banker

916-541-3169 cell