Sacramento Land(ing) will experience a short hiatus as I travel over the next week and a half. Please help your fellow readers by posting links to news articles about the Sacramento real estate market in the comments below. Please read the comment policy before posting.

You can also follow the Sacramento real estate market on The Housing Bubble blog's California thread. For commentary and statistics on Sacramento's real estate market, try the Sacramento Real Estate Statistics blog and the Average Buyer blog. To be notified when posting resumes, subscribe to Sacramento Land(ing)'s site feed here.

I wanted to thank you all for the numerous links, tips, and photos that I regularly receive. Although I don't always get the chance to respond, I do appreciate your contributions. Speaking of which, here's a photo sent in by reader LL. Thanks!

Median asking price year-over-year change: -24.8% ($89,000)

Median asking price change since August 2005: -32.5% ($129,900)

For more Sacramento price statistics go here.

It's been a while since I last posted charts based on data from the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR). Here's a look at January's price and sales trends for single-family homes in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. Click the charts to enlarge. To compare to other price indexes, click here.

Sacramento's median home price declined an astounding 28.2% over a 12-month period, the sharpest drop on record. That compares to a 24.1% decline over the 6-year 1990s housing bust. January marked the 19th consecutive month of year-over-year percentage declines and the 6th month of double-digit declines.

The total decline since peak breached the 30% barrier for the first time, falling 35.1%.

They said it wouldn't happen, but it just did.

The decline in Sacramento home prices has surpassed the total decline of the 1990s housing bust. According to the Sacramento Association of Realtors, the December median home price fell to $280,000, a drop of 28.7% from its August 2005 peak of $392,750. That compares to a 24.1% drop between July 1990 and December 1996.

From Reuters:

Housing markets from Punta Gorda, Florida, to Stockton, California, will crash and suffer price drops of more than 30 percent before the housing crisis is over, a report from Moody's Economy.com said on Thursday...Punta Gorda, Florida, and Stockton, California, are the hardest hit markets in the U.S., with price declines from peak-to-trough forecast at 35.3 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively.
...
These markets have been hard hit due to several reasons, namely the exiting of investors from the areas, a fair amount of subprime mortgage loans causing an increase in foreclosures and overbuilding by home builders, Zandi told Reuters.Moody's past predictions for Stockton home prices:

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Some weekend reading:

• Foreclosure Trends in Sacramento and Recommended Policy Options [pdf]
• The Great Housing Bubble
  
• Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know (Harper's via The Big Picture)
• Want to Know When Housing Has Bottomed? Here's How

Today, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their Housing Market Index (HMI) showing continued evidence that the new home market is experiencing a prolonged recession.

The release came along with some guarded outlook from Chief Economist David Seiders who is now suggests that more action on the part of legislators is needed to help bring recovery to the market.

From Forbes: Worst U. S. Housing Markets

1. Sacramento, Calif.

Over-building and speculation helped the Sacramento housing market become one of the fastest gainers in the country during the housing boom. It's now in a near free-fall.From the Sacramento Bee: Think back now to mid-2004 when Sacramento County's median sales price for resale homes broke through the $300,000 barrier. It was a sensational moment. "Housing prices hit milestone," The Bee reported. The newspaper account said it took 13 years for prices to climb from $100,000 to $200,000 – and only two to "rocket" to $300,000.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

From the San Diego Union Tribune (hat tip HBB):Steve Cochrane, senior managing director for Moodys.com and a specialist on California housing, said data indicate that a recession brought by the housing downturn has begun in the overbuilt Central Valley.From the Associated Press:Evoking Depression-era memories, Wells Fargo & Co. President John Stumpf on Thursday became the latest banker to predict continuing difficulties in the U.S. housing market as risky mortgages made to overextended borrowers disintegrate into large loan losses. Speaking at an investment conference in New York, Stumpf said the current real estate conditions are the worst he has experienced during his 30-year career.

HOPE: [California Association of Realtors Chief Economist Leslie] Appleton-Young agreed that foreclosures will continue to rise. But she predicted foreclosure rates will not reach the high levels of the early 1980s or mid-1990s when slumping economies and job losses roiled the state.
-Sonoma Press Democrat, Feb 2, 2007 REALITY:

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Change in median asking price (year-over-year): -27.9%

Change in median asking price (since August 2005): -35.2%
Source: Housing Tracker

AgentBubble has posted some numbers for February over at the Sacramento Real Estate Statistics blog. Year-over-year change:

The Sacramento Real Estate blog reports that Sacramento County's price per square foot was $149.84 in April, a 33.9% drop from last year. That translates into a 41% decline in 31 months. Of note, this is the first resale home metric to cross the 40% off peak mark.

With regards to asking prices, Housing Tracker shows a median price decline of 28.9% year-over-year. The median has dropped 37.7% since August 2005.

More Sacramento real estate market figures for April at the Sacramento Real Estate Statistics blog.

From the Central Valley Business Times:Home values in the first quarter of 2008 fell 1.6 percent from the fourth quarter and 7.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, marking the most significant year-over-year decline in the past 12 years, Zillow says.

Today, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their Housing Market Index (HMI) showing continued evidence that the new home market is experiencing a prolonged recession.

The release came along with some guarded, yet optimistic, outlook from Chief Economist David Seiders who has continues to look for an “upswing” in building activity in the second half of 2008.

From the Sacramento Bee:It would seem like one of the best locations to build a shopping center: Elk Grove Boulevard at Interstate 5, in one of Sacramento's fastest-growing suburbs. But retailers have been slow to flock to Stonelake Landing since it opened last March...[T]he Elk Grove center is 45 percent rented and has lost two tenants that had signed leases.
...
The weakness in Sacramento's real estate market is no longer confined to housing. Commercial real estate is starting to soften – more so in retailing, less in the office and industrial markets. Projects are slower to lease up, and rents are coming down. Developers and lenders are becoming substantially more cautious about proceeding with new projects.
...

[Update: added graphs]

Housing Tracker, median asking price: $300,000

Change from last year: -18.8% [-$69,500]

Change from Aug '05: -25.0% [-$99,900]

From the Sacramento Business Journal:
The average price per square foot of homes sold in the Sacramento metropolitan area fell nearly 15 percent in a year, the biggest drop among 25 major national markets tracked by Radar Logic Inc., the New York-based real estate analyst reported Friday.The Sacramento real estate market has ended up in last place for three consecutive months, beating out markets such as San Diego, Las Vegas, and Tampa. Sacramento also claimed the bottom spot for condo price appreciation for the third month running, with prices plunging 21.5% compared with the prior year.

Stats Canada has release the New Housing Price Index for August.

The price of a new home in Victoria rose 0.4% between August 2006 and August 2007. Of the cities surveyed, this was the third smallest increase. Windsor (-2.8%) and Charlottetown (0.2%) lead the way. Canada as a whole had an increase of 6.5%.