20% of Existing Homes for Sale in Sacramento are Short Sales

USA Today has an interesting article about the Sacramento real estate market. According to the report....

• 1 in 5 homes listed for sale is a short-sale that translates to 20% of all listing in the area.

If you remember in 2005 Sacramento was one of the fastest appreciating areas in all of California... quite different now, according to the NAR the median price home fell 4.3% from last December.

These number of short sales make competition for the buyers even more difficult as home sellers are now competing with these "must sell" listings.

There is current a 4.3 month inventory of listings which does not include the 3.5 months of new construction. Additionally, there is a big pipeline of homes in the foreclosure process which will hit the market within the next 3-6 months further depressing values.

As I have mentioned in the past, real estate short sale will continue to represent a significant part of the market.

View USA Today Article

Real Estate Short Sale Updates...

Real estate short sale watch.

- Active: 195
- Pending: 29

Here is an update of the activity. Small down turn in the number of of active listings but still significantly higher than 6 months ago.

Real Estate Short Sales in the News

According to this article in San Luis Obispo Tribune they are reporting that short sales are also on the rise there.

There was an error in the article that states...

"With a short sale, however, sellers cannot get any money from the sale once
the debt is forgiven. The seller also still has to pay federal income tax on
that money."

This is actually incorrect. There is a tax law that states if you are insolvent you maybe able to get "ghost income" forgiving as long as the amount does not exceed $50,000.

If you are facing this situation it's important to see your tax accountant to truly understand your situation.