Everybody’s all a-twitter. And I don’t mean that in a Tweeting sense. Everybody who has a dog in the race is jumping on the real estate bandwagon to beat chests and roar the market is recovering. Those without a dog in the race are sitting back on the sidelines, munching on pretzels with raised eyebrows.

Because I am a Sacramento short sale agent, I’d like nothing better than for prices to rise. It would be so much easier to sell a home that is not underwater. I think about how glorious it would be to sell a home once instead of twice, three times or five times. How wonderful would it be to go into escrow knowing that we don’t have to beg the bank to bless the transaction and fight with morons. Why, it would be just like a hazy dream from long, long ago.

But then I slap my face and wake up. Because it ain’t happening. Just because the sun peeked out for a moment doesn’t mean the rain is going away or the ground is drying. It’s the winter of short sales in Sacramento. It’s with us for a long time.

Above is a graphic from our recent Trendgraphix reports, produced by Lyon Real Estate. This goes out to media and each agent in our 17 agent offices in Sacramento.

I see prices are flat, REO inventory is still in shadow inventory, and there is nothing to buy because inventory has fallen but we have a lot of buyers in the market. Most of whom, although you can’t tell it by this, are investors. You tell me what you think.

Chart: Lyon Real Estate

Author: Elizabeth Weintraub – see her Land Park Blog