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--It's barely spring but you wouldn't know it by the pace of Sacramento County home resales, which last month set a February record as the median price rose to its highest point ever - $172,500.
As was the case in January, resale activity was unseasonably strong statewide last month, with Southern California sales rising to record levels compared with any past February, according to San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems, which tracks closed escrows. Final sales figures aren't available for March. But many Sacramento-area Realtors and would- be buyers have been surprised this month by the number of multiple-offer situations arising out of a thin inventory of homes priced below $200,000. Consider home shopper Randi Scott, who's spent the past few months looking for a house for around $180,000 in the Orangevale-Citrus Heights area. Earlier this week she got a timely heads-up from her Realtor, advising her that a 1,100-square-foot home in Orangevale selling for $176,000 had hit the market at 2:30 p.m. that day. Scott, 51, a secretary, said she got to the three-bedroom, two-bath house by 3:30 p.m. and found eight other people already lined up to view it. "I was thinking, 'What if I want it? How would I ever get it? I'd have to offer the seller a lot more,'" she recalled. As it turned out, she said, the house needed what she estimates was $20,000 in repairs, so she passed. Her search continues, and she said she's hoping that many of the 420 single-family homes owned by Gensiro Kawamoto, an investor who recently gave all his tenants notice to move out, will hit the market soon. Many of Kawamoto's homes are in Citrus Heights and Orangevale. Even if she doesn't want any of those, she said, at least the boost in inventory might cool off the market. However, local Realtors say demand is so strong for homes priced below and just above $200,000 that they anticipate the Kawamoto homes would be snapped up quickly and wouldn't have a big impact on the rest of the market. Real estate analysts and economists chalk up most of the local, statewide and national housing markets' early-year strength to a combination of low mortgage rates, rising consumer confidence and strong demand from younger baby boomers and immigrants. Other factors the experts say are fueling sales here include continued, albeit subdued, job growth; more investor purchases; tenants avoiding higher rents; more Bay Area buyers; and a so-called nesting phenomenon, spurred by last year's terrorist attacks. Also, when Sutter and Yuba counties are included, the total population in the greater Sacramento region grew by 61,300 from July 2000 to July 2001 - the most since the population swelled by 62,000 in 1990, according to the latest state Department of Finance estimates, which include births and in-migration. "I don't think we really have a recession behind us (here), and if that's true, and 61,000 people a year are rolling in here, we'll be back in the boom cycle real soon," said local economist Robert Fountain. Scott Thompson, owner-broker of Thompson + Brown Real Estate in Roseville, said that nearly two-thirds of his recent sellers have been people wanting bigger or better homes here. "People are feeling pretty good about things (for example, jobs and the economy) and are clearly pleased with interest rates," Thompson said. The inventory of available resale homes rises considerably when the price exceeds $300,000, making for a more relaxed shopping experience. "There's quite a bit out there for our price range," said Howard Cream, 46, a Bay Area transplant who recently submitted an offer on a 2,400-square-foot home in Rocklin, with an asking price of $325,000. Even in the Bay Area, where the high-tech recession and dot-com meltdown cooled sales for more than a year, the number of homes closing escrow last month rose sharply over February 2000. Median resale prices rose in four of the nine Bay Area counties, compared with last year. "There was a perception for much of last year that Bay Area home prices were in steep decline and many buyers don't want to buy something that's dropping in value," said Mike Ela, DataQuick's president. "While prices did edge down for a while, they leveled off by late summer." * * * The Bee's Andrew LePage can be reached at (916) 321-1065 or alepage@sacbee.com. In Sunday's Bee Sacramentans can expect solid appreciation in the local housing market in the coming year. * Sunday Business