Guest commentary: It's Red Friday for columnist

Black Friday? The term Black Friday is commonly known as the day massive sales allow retailers to finally turn a profit, as operations move from "in the red" to "in the black". Little-known fact – at least for me – that the term Black Friday originated in Philadelphia in the 1960s when local police dubbed the phrase due to the chaos from all the tourists that came into the city for holiday shopping and to see the Army-Navy football game. It may be Black Friday for retailers, but it's Red Friday for me. Eighty-two percent of customers want to shop on Black Friday. An estimated 152 million Americans shop the sales; more than 124 million shopped online on Black Friday. So it's probably safe to say I'm not alone. Black Friday online sales were more than $10 billion in the US. The most popular category of sales was electronics, followed by clothing. Amazon made more than 17 percent of all Black Friday sales. That is mind-boggling. According to different studies, the average person spends $674 to more than $1,000. I think I did my part to hold up that average. I'm in the Red. Sure, I shopped online and in a variety of local stores. In my small informal survey, consisting of not-very-scientific conversations with not-necessarily-very-scientific people called "my friends," I found that some people do what I do. As Black Friday approaches, I plan to do more shopping during that time. It's a great time to look for sales offered by retailers. Need a car? How Christmas-y is a new pool filter? How about dog food? My iPad battery isn't holding a charge. Hmmm, could be a good time to replace it. Those running shoes looking pretty worn. And those prescription glasses are very old. Or discounts on airline tickets for a flight several months away. It's a great time to be a smart shopper. Oh, right, the whole purpose of Black Friday is to buy gifts for the ones I love. Anyone want to be part owner of a pool filter? You'll look great taking a selfie next to it while you're wearing that new sweater on a cold winter day. It's important to support our wonderful local retailers. You can find just about anything you need in Folsom and El Dorado Hills. Local small businesses depend on Black Friday. And the bigger box stores employ local people to work and provide customer service to customers. I probably spent more on Black Friday and surrounding days than I do in any other specific time of the year. How about you? Are you in the red? So here's a plan to get back into the black. Go visit the local casino. Head to the roulette table and put the amount of spending on red! With my luck, it'll come up Green. Do people buy homes on Black Friday? Sure, it happens all the time. Pretty sure it's not with the average 31-percent discount that is reported in retail. If it was, well, the entire inventory would sell out. In El Dorado Hills (EDH) and Folsom, homes do not close escrow on Black Friday because the county isn't open that day to record. So let's look at homes that closed on either the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the following Monday. In Folsom, 13 homes closed on either of those two days. In EDH, only one home closed and the buyer happened to be my client. They were very excited about their holiday home. Homes that closed were actually purchased an average of a few weeks earlier, so were there any buyers that got their offer accepted on Black Friday? In Folsom, one buyer and in EDH, two buyers had their offers accepted on Black Friday. It's doubtful they had to get up at 5 a.m., deal with parking lot crowds and rush the doors with hundreds of others to get in. As a result, it may be possible for these Black Friday holiday homebuyers to celebrate the holiday in their new home. The bigger picture for local residential real estate sales in El Dorado Hills and Folsom is very bright. Year to date through November 2024 compared to same period in 2023, numbers are up in both communities. In EDH, the average price of a home sold is up slightly to just more than $1.075 million while in Folsom, it's up 7 percent to almost $825,000. In EDH, homes that sold took about 20 percent longer to sell on average, while in Folsom, the Days On Market remained the same. Both communities see an increase in number of homes sold. EDH shows a 2-percent increase and Folsom is experiencing an increase of 9 percent. I hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday season. I love where I live. I'm excited to continue to help more families in 2024 with their real estate needs. With proper planning and a good Realtor (luckily, I know a really good one …), you can smoothly get to your next stage in life. For more tips on how to successfully navigate the real estate purchase or sale, or suggestions on Folsom topics, please contact me at Coldwell Banker Realty, 916-812-4341, pquan@cbnorcal.com, www.PatQuan.com. CA DRE #01918240