The first quarterly report on new-home sales in the Sacramento area during 2009 is in - and there's one good sign amid a new low of 699 sales in January, February and March.
Excess supply - houses built or almost built without buyers - are back to lows last seen in mid-2004 and early 2005, the height of the buying frenzy.
The tally as March ended was 1,159 empty houses in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, says the report being released today by the Folsom-based Gregory Group.
That's far less than 3,226 the same time last year - and a peak of 4,598 in the third quarter of 2006.
It's evidence that builders and their bare-bones construction and sales staffs are finally getting supply and demand back in balance.
"That's not very much inventory," said Gregory Group President Greg Paquin. "If there's any uptick in sales the second quarter and certainly, the third, it's going to put more stress on what's available in the marketplace."
That would mean competition and higher prices. But builders aren't there yet.
Their $336,683 median sales price - where half the homes sold for more and half for less - fell for a 12th straight quarter to a six-year low.
The average new home price: $380,786.
The region's excesses, soft prices and abundance of buyers choosing bank repos gave ample negotiating power to early 2009 buyer Jay Cook.
Cook, an account executive with CitiMortgage, moved from Chicago to Sacramento, and last week into a Natomas house built by New Jersey-based K. Hovnanian Homes.
"What prompted us off the fence was the $10,000 (state) tax credit," he said. It gives new homebuyers like him up to $3,333 off taxes each of the next three years. Builders are hoping $100 million in state tax credits that went into effect for escrows closed after March 1 will help sell 10,000 excess houses statewide.
California's Franchise Tax Board counts Cook among 2,624 applicants statewide so far for $25.6 million in the credits after buying new homes.
Paquin said January and February sales were dismal, but builders reported many more visitors in March.
Overall, Sacramento and Placer counties accounted for 76 percent of first-quarter sales, he said. Which city sold the most? Roseville, with 22 percent of the region's sales.
--Call The Sacramento Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102 or email him at [email protected]. Read his blog on real estate, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.