Links of Random Interest: May 2006

Sorry for the long delay. I’ve been trying to get explicit clearance to post my browsable Google Earth files, but no dice so far. Instead, I have some aggregate data and more pretty pictures. I have been working from two data sets. One is taken from active listings for Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, and El Dorado counties, and contains active listing data only. (Pending sales are not included.) The second data set contains pending sales and active listings, and is where I get my daily inventory stats. Although the active listing data set is more conservative in absolute terms, they compare very well trend-wise. (Interestingly, if you subtract the totals from both data sets on any day, you come up with a difference of around 1500. Presumably this is the number of pending sales. I will keep my eye on this and report back later.) Anyway, to the data:

The median asking price in all counties has been firm with a slight upward trend for the last five weeks, while the average price per square foot is holding steady. Inventory surpassed the April 1992 record of 13,507 on May 4th, and should surpass the population adjusted record of 17,913 by mid August if the accelerating upward trend holds:

During the first three months, inventory grew an average of 22 listings per day:

That trend has accelerated, and inventory is growing by about 28 listings per day. We are already about 600 listings over the peak from October 2005, and on the last two weekends alone Sacramento inventory grew by 510 listings:

So, what does this market actually look like? I put together some Google Earth images of the latest data set to answer that question. Unfortunately, I am unable at this time to offer the actual data file. I would also like to thank Patrick Killelea for posting this blog on his widely read housing news site. Without him, nobody would read this. Max Note: The large dots designate that a price change has occurred. El Dorado Hills/Cameron Park: