Sacramento County home sales hovered around seasonal norms for the second month in a row, but the median price fell again as investors snapped up distressed properties, according to figures released Thursday by market watcher DataQuick Information Systems.
Sales in Sacramento County rose 6.3 percent in February compared to the same month of 2010, the La Jolla-based researcher said. This is the second straight month that sales were up when compared to the prior year. They’re only down about 5 percent from the monthly average of the past two decades.
However, the median price for those sales was $157,000 -the lowest level since September 2000, when the median was $154,000. The median price for resale detached homes was $160,000 -equaling the median in spring 2009, when the full impact of the foreclosure crisis hit the market.
The low median but steady sales are largely the result of investors snapping up distressed assets in foreclosure and short sales, said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst.
“There are so many people out there bargain hunting still,” LePage said.
About 34.7 percent of February sales went to absentee owners — the highest percentage since 2000 when DataQuick started tracking such figures. A record number of buyers — 39 percent — paid cash. That compares to an average of 13.3 percent since 1988.
