Sacramento Short Sales on the rise..."Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment!"

There has been a lot of buzz lately about just how many short sales are on the market in Sacramento. I can tell you that I have a growing number of short sale listings myself. For me, there is not too much difference in negotiating 5 short sales or 25...I am dealing with the same lenders repetitively, and I have developed a great system to negotiate them. The number of short sales vs. bank owned properties vs. traditional sellers on the market right now is pretty interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I am going to do a little recurring experiment. Let's call it "Erin's Sacramento Short Sale Experiment."

I am no scientist (I took bone-head science - astronomy in college, ok?), but I am going to take a few zip codes and dissect them. How many short sales are there right now? How many will there be in the same areas in a few months?...and over time? What percentage of all of the listings will be short sales? My hypothesis: the number of short sales will grow over time, as will their dominance in our marketplace (overall percentage of listings).

So for my experiment, let's look at the zip codes 95624, 95610, 95826, 95818, and 95819. We'll call this sample (as of today's MLS data) the "control data" for my experiment. We will revisit these cross sections over the next few months, and see how this plays out. Oooh! How fun!!

95624 is the section of Elk Grove closest to Hwy 99. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 290 active listings there. 199/290 listings are short sales. That is more than two-thirds of the inventory there!! The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $234,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95610 is a section of Citrus Heights. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 126 active listings there. 76/126 listings are short sales. Slightly less than two-thirds of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $208,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95826 is a section of Rosemont and College Greens. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 90 active listings there. 56/90 listings are short sales. Slightly less than two-thirds of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was also $208,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95864 is a section of Sierra Oaks, Arden Park, and Arden Manor. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 147 active listings there. 25/147 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $430,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95818 is a section of Midtown, Land Park, and Curtis Park. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 75 active listings there. 12/75 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $382,000 according to Trendgraphix.

95819 is a section of East Sacramento. As of right this second according to MLS, there are a total of 71 active listings there. 14/71 listings are short sales. Slightly less than one-fifth of the inventory there. The median price in that zip code in May 2009 was $378,000 according to Trendgraphix.

Welp...let's see how this takes shape over time!