Sacramento Real Estate Statistics for December 2015

Years from now, I will look back on Sacramento real estate in 2015 and probably think, "wow, what a nice enjoyable year." I say this because from my perspective, 2015 was the year that things seemed more or less normal.

What do I mean by normal anyway? Isn't complete and total chaos normal?

Gosh, it doesn't have to be. Have you ever been in a totally volatile personal relationship, and after a while the craziness just becomes status quo? Yeah. We all have, whether it has been a significant other, friend, acquaintance, child, fill-in-the-blank-in-law, or someone else. Then, the time that follows the once that toxic person has been extricated from your life can only be described as one thing: nirvana. And not the kind that smells like teen spirit. I mean heaven.

The last several years of Sacramento real estate have been so volatile, the local economy so precarious, that 2015 by comparison was nirvana. At least for me. Sure, certain transactions were stressful, but the market conditions were such that there was no unnecessary external chaos.

So back to real estate statistics for Sacramento. Aside from the bounce back from a slight dip in value that ended 2014, values were nice and steady with a slight value appreciation. This is nice and sustainable. No wild value swings up, no wild value swings down. Despite the Federal Reserve Board announcement that they would raise the short term rate for the first time in 9 years, this action did not really increase mortgage rates much, and those 30 year fixed mortgage rates are hovering in the low 4% range right now. The number of short sale and foreclosure continue to decline. The number of homeowners with equity in their homes is increasing.

I think we will see more of the same in 2016, and with that I am hopeful that at the end of the coming year I can describe 2016 much the same way.