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Sacramento Real Estate in Recovery?

Not about golf, but a front-page story in today's New York Times suggests that the real estate market in Sacramento -- one of the country's hardest-hit areas during the mortgage crisis -- may be showing signs of bottoming out.

"Investors and first-time buyers, the traditional harbingers of a housing rebound, are out in force here, competing for bargain-price foreclosures," says the article. "With sales up 45 percent from last year, the vast backlog of inventory has diminished. Even prices, which have plummeted to levels not seen since the beginning of the decade, show evidence of stabilizing."

The story goes on to say that other markets that had been slumping, including Las Vegas and parts of Florida, are also seeing increased activity.

What does this have to do with golf? Obviously, when the real estate market in a particular area goes through a tough period, the golf market there usually gets slammed right along with it. This is certainly true of Sacramento, where (as we've written about on Deeds & Weeds) country clubs are having as hard a go of it these days as anywhere in the country (vanishing initiation fees, declining memberships, private to semi-private to public, etc.)

An improving real estate market isn't going to cure all of the Sacramento's golf woes, but it's certainly a start.

-- G.R.