The $8,000 Home-Buyer Tax Credit Has Been Extended & Expanded

Earlier today, President Obama signed new legislation extending the deadline for the home buyer tax credit into 2010 and expanding it to include current home owners who are looking to buy a primary residence.

The Basic Requirements

You qualify for the tax credit if the:

• Home you’re buying will be your primary residence
• Purchase price isn’t more than $800,000

This credit is not a loan; it’s yours, but keep in mind you have to live in your new home for three years. If you sell the home in less than three years, you’ll have to pay back the money.

What’s Changed?

With the new legislation, buyers have more time to find a home and more buyers are eligible for the tax credit:

• New deadline: To qualify, you need to be in contract with a seller by April 30th & close on the home by June 30th (The previous deadline was November 30, 2009).
• Not just for first-time buyers anymore: Home buyers who’ve owned and occupied a home for at least five consecutive years during the past eight years are eligible for a credit up to $6,500.
• Increased income limits: Individuals making less than $125,000 and couples making less than $225,000 are eligible (The limits used to be $75K & $150K).

First-time buyers are eligible for a credit up to $8,000 on homes purchased between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. Qualified homeowners can a credit up to $6,500 on homes purchased between November 7, 2009 and June 30, 2010.

Bonus Link

You can check out the full text of the bill. Scroll about halfway down to sections 11 & 12:

• Sec. 11. Extension and Modification of First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.
• Sec. 12. Provisions to Enhance the Administration of the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.

The Market Wrap Up for September

Let’s take at look at some September numbers for single-family houses and condos that sold in the Sacramento area and see how they compare to a year ago.

Sacramento County

• 2,068 homes sold in September, down 26% from September 2008
• The median sales price was $176,000, down 12% from September 2008

Placer County

• 581 homes sold in September, down 12% from September 2008
• The median sales price was $292,000, down 12% from September 2008

El Dorado County

• 229 homes sold in September, up 8% from September 2008
• The median sales price was $288,000, down 23% from September 2008

Yolo County

• 196 homes sold in September, down 22% from September 2008
• The median sales price was $250,000, down 9% from September 2008

We got these numbers from DQNews.

Dig Deeper Into the Trends

These numbers are for county-level trends in the Sacramento area. To see what’s happening in your neighborhood, check out our stats & trends pages.

Where Were the Biggest Discounts in August?

Let’s check in on our stats to find out where buyers are currently getting the biggest discounts off asking price. If you are a potential buyer, this will help you to know which neighborhoods may be softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, and help you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from last month in the Sacramento area and sorted it by city.

Methodology
In order to maintain consistency with the automatically generated statistics posted to the Redfin neighborhood pages, we have slightly tweaked the way the statistics are compiled for this post series. First, we complied a list of every sale that took place in the month, calculating each sale’s sale-to-list ratio (based on the final list price). Next, we simply take an average of every individual sale’s sale-to-list ratio to calculate an entire area’s sale-to-list ratio. Any sales that came in with a sale-to-list ratio above 150% or below 50% are excluded from the calculation, and areas with fewer than twenty sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings. Interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

Here are the top ten areas with the largest overall discount:

The overall discount rate was obviously lower than our last update, but since we tweaked the methodology slightly, unfortunately they’re not really comparable.

Here are the ten areas with the smallest discounts:

In the 22 areas we ranked, the median discount was 1.0%.

Here’s the bonus graph, showing the discount off the original list price:

Looks like there are definitely still some sellers out there that are overestimating the current moderate strength in the market when they first list their house. Especially in Placerville. What’s going on over there?

Is the area you’re shopping not on either the top 10 or bottom 10? No problem, just download the full rankings in Excel format and hit the “FullSummary” sheet.

Of the 2,507 sales we tracked in the 1-month period, 497 homes sold for 5% or more off the asking price, while 491 homes sold for 5% or more above the asking price.

September City/Neighborhood Price Reductions

It’s been a while since we had a look at which cities and towns have the most price reductions.

The following charts show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.

For those that are interested, I have uploaded the full data set in Excel format here. The downloadable Excel file also includes charts showing the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings.

First up are the top ten cities with the most price-reduced listings:

Of the 62 cities/towns we ranked in the Sacramento area this month, just 1 had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. The median price-reduced ratio was 25.5%.

Getting a little more granular, let’s look at the top ten neighborhoods for price reductions:

Of the 42 neighborhoods we ranked this month, only 3 had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. The median price-reduced ratio was 27.7%.

Download the full spreadsheet to check where your neighborhood came in.

The Market Wrap-Up For August

Let’s take at look at some August numbers for single-family houses and condos that sold in the Sacramento area and see how they compare to a year ago.

Sacramento County

• 2,061 homes sold, down from 2,520 in August 2008
• The median sales price was $180,000, down from $210,000 in August 2008

Placer County

• 554 homes sold, down from 655 in August 2008
• The median sales price was $305,000, down from $330,000 in August 2008

El Dorado County

• 183 homes sold, down from 214 in August 2008
• The median sales price was $310,000, down from $390,000 in August 2008

Yolo County

• 209 homes sold, down from 248 in August 2008
• The median sales price was $260,000, down from $312,250 in August 2008

We got these numbers from DQNews.

Dig Deeper Into the Trends

These numbers are for county-level trends in the Sacramento area. To see what’s happening in your neighborhood, check out our stats & trends pages.

What trends did you see in August?

Biggest Discounts (Belated) August Update

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. Unfortunately I did not receive the data until almost the end of the month.

Let’s check in on our stats once again and find out where buyers are currently getting the biggest discounts off asking price. If you are a potential buyer, this will help you to know which neighborhoods may be softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, and help you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from last month in the Sacramento area and sorted it by zip code. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any areas with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

Here are the top ten areas with the largest overall discount:

The overall discount rate held steady from June to July at 1.3%.

Here are the ten areas with the smallest discounts:

In the 54 areas we ranked, the median discount was 0.8%. 19 areas had an average sale price above the average list price.

Is the area you’re shopping not on either the top 10 or bottom 10? No problem, just download the full rankings in Excel format and hit the “FullSummary” sheet.

Of the 2,685 sales we tracked in the 1-month period, 581 homes sold for 5% or more off the asking price, while 546 homes sold for 5% or more above the asking price.

The Market Wrap-Up For July

Let’s take at look at some July numbers for single-family houses and condos that sold in the Sacramento area and see how they compare to a year ago.

Sacramento County

• 2,261 homes sold in July
• The median sales price was $180,000, down from $210,000 in July 2008

Placer County

• 606 homes sold in July
• The median sales price was $295,250, down from $345,000 in July 2008

El Dorado County

• 228 homes sold in July
• The median sales price was $330,000, down from $390,000 in July 2008

Yolo County

• 234 homes sold in July
• The median sales price was $281,500, down from $290,300 in July 2008

We got these numbers from DQNews.

Dig Deeper Into the Trends

These numbers are for county-level trends in the Sacramento area. To see what’s happening in your neighborhood, check out our stats & trends pages.

This is our first monthly report on the inventory trends in the Sacramento area. What numbers would you like to see in our August wrap-up?

Biggest Discounts July Update

Let’s check in on our stats once again and find out where buyers are currently getting the biggest discounts off asking price. If you are a potential buyer, this will help you to know which neighborhoods may be softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, and help you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from last month in the Sacramento area and sorted it by zip code. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any areas with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

Here are the top ten areas with the largest overall discount:

The overall discount rate dropped slightly from May to June, moving from 1.7% to 1.3%. 95603 (Auburn) retained the #1 spot from last month, although the discount rate there dropped from 7.8% to 6.7%.

Here are the ten areas with the smallest discounts:

Of the 53 areas we ranked, 18 came in in with an average sale price above the average list price.

Here’s an added bonus. The following chart shows the top ten areas with the largest overall discount from the original list price, instead of the final list price:

95841 (between I-80 and American River College) shot from #22 all the way up to #1 with buyers getting an average of 22% off the original list price (based on 17 sales).

Is the area you’re shopping not on either the top 10 or bottom 10? No problem, just download the full rankings in Excel format and hit the “FullSummary” sheet.

Of the 2,563 sales we tracked in the 1-month period, 194 homes (8%) sold for 10% or more off the asking price, while 222 homes sold for 10% or more above the asking price.

Which Cities, Towns, and Neighborhoods have the most price reductions?

Let’s take a look at which cities and towns have the most price reductions.

The following charts show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.

For those that are interested, I have uploaded the full data set in Excel format here. The downloadable Excel file also includes charts showing the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings.

First up are the top ten cities with the most price-reduced listings:

Of the 56 cities/towns we ranked in the Sacramento area this month, just 6 had price-reduced ratios of twenty percent or more. This is a rather low percentage of price-reduced listings compared to our other markets around the country, where it is not uncommon to see a large percentage of the cities with price-reduced ratios over 40-50%.

Getting a little more granular, let’s look at the top ten Sacramento area neighborhoods for price reductions:

Of the 29 neighborhoods we ranked in the Sacramento area this month, just 3 had a price-reduced ratio of twenty percent or more. Nine neighborhoods had reduced-price ratios under 10%, with Delhi in Merced County coming in at just 2.4%.

As we watch this set of statistics, it should give us a picture of whether the market is generally getting softer or hotter. The more sellers that have to reduce their prices in order to find buyers, the softer the market is, obviously.

Where are buyers getting the biggest discounts?

Let’s check in on some stats on the size of price reductions. How receptive are sellers to accepting an offer below their asking price?

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Where are buyers currently getting the biggest discount off the asking price in and around Sacramento? Knowing which neighborhoods are softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price will better equip you when making an offer.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from last month in the Sacramento area and sorted it by zip code. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any areas with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

For a quick look at where a given zip code is located, just type it into the Redfin search box, or drop by the handy USNaviguide.com zip code map.

Here are the top ten areas with the largest overall discount:

The overall discount rate for Sacramento came in at 1.7%, which is relatively low compared to other regions around the state and the nation that Redfin serves. Auburn (95603) took the top spot.

Here are the ten areas with the smallest discounts:

Of the 52 areas we ranked, just the seven shown above came in with average sale prices above the list price.

Is the area you’re shopping not on either the top 10 or bottom 10? No problem, just download the full rankings in Excel format and hit the “FullSummary” sheet.

Of the 2,358 sales we tracked in the 1-month period, 191 homes (8%) sold for 10% or more off the asking price, while 409 homes sold for 5% or more above the asking price.

We will be keeping an eye on this data every month to see which neighborhoods are trending toward larger discounts and which are trending toward selling at full price.

Buyers should be aware that not all neighborhoods are created equal. While an offer 10% below list price may have a good chance of being accepted in a few neighborhoods where buyers are few and far between, some areas in and around Sacramento are still seeing enough interest to command full price or more.