Daren Blomquist with Realty Trac says fewer foreclosures and higher prices are good signs.
“We’ve come down quite a ways. But, still, at a high percentage of sales. We’d expect in a healthy housing market to see in the range of five-to-ten percent of all sales be foreclosure-related sales.”
There were also fewer short sales in Sacramento and statewide, but Blomquist says that might not be a good sign. Thirty seven percent of homes in the region are worth less than what’s owed on the mortgage. Blomquist says analysts hope banks have not tightened restrictions on underwater homeowners trying to sell.
He says 30 percent of sales in the first three months of this year involved a foreclosed home, but that was down from nearly 50 percent a year ago.
“Home prices have clearly hit bottom in California and are rising up pretty rapidly and that is helping to lift all boats and help some homeowners -who were at risk for foreclosure- to be able to avoid foreclosure by selling their home or by refinancing because they now have equity in the home.”
The price of a foreclosed home was up by 21 percent in Sacramento and by 17 percent in Los Angeles compared to a year ago.
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