Like most local areas, the real estate prices in Pollock Pines declined sharply over the last year. The average home sold in first quarter of 2008 for $255,519, down 32.1% from last year’s average of $376,310.  Part of this decline in price was simply a result of this year’s average home being 12.4% smaller than last year’s.  Still, in the first quarter of 2008, the average home sold for approximately 22.5% less on a sold price per square foot basis than in the first quarter of 2007.  The median sale price fell 25.8% during this time, from $325,000 in first quarter of 2007 to $241,000 in the first quarter of 2008.

Pollock Pines sales a traditionally sluggish in the first quarter, since this is the time this area is still seeing some snowfall.  An average of 12 units per month have sold over the course of the last year, with only twenty-six selling in the first quarter (8 2/3 per month).  However, this year’s unit volume compares favorably to the same time last year, when twenty-four homes sold in the first quarter.

Interestingly, in both the first quarter of 2007 as well as first quarter of 2008, the expired to sold ratio was 100% — i.e., as many listings expired and sold in both periods.

At present, some 12.3% of the homes in active inventory are bank foreclosures, and 10.8% are short sales.  In the first quarter of 2008, 46.2% of homes that sold were bank foreclosures, and 15.4% of the sales were short sales.

The real estate market in El Dorado Hills is behaving like a typical "luxury" market in the Greater Sacramento area this year.  That is to say, compared to nearby areas:

• It lost some of its value, but less than in other areas.
• It has a lower overall percentage of distressed sales, though more than last year.
• Although prices are not off by that much compared to other areas, unit volume is down dramatically.

Let’s look at some specifics.

In the first quarter of 2008, the average home sold in El Dorado Hills for $592,958, down 11.3% from last year’s average price of $668,752.  The average for sold price per square foot fell 11.8%, from $230.92 in 2007 to $214.72 in 2008.  At $499,500, this year’s median price was down 18.4% from last year’s median sale price of $612,500.

Distressed sales make up 24% of active inventory, and 38.6% of sales in the first quarter. 8.3% of the 408 currently available homes in El Dorado County are bank foreclosures, a category that accounted for 28.4% of sales in the first quarter.  Short sales make up 15.7% of active inventory, and accounted for 10.2% of the sales in the first quarter.

This year the most outstanding feature of the Placerville market is the extent to which things simply aren’t moving compared to last year.  Unit volume is down by more than half.  In the first quarter of 2007, 66 units sold in what we can call "greater Placerville" (i.e., the 95667 zip code, which is quite a bit larger than the city limits).

The average home sold in Placerville in the first quarter for $413,636, 4.3% more than last year’s average of $396,453.  This year saw a bigger crop of homes selling, however, with the net result that sold price per square foot is down 17.2% from last year.  This year’s median price of $355,000 is down 5.8% from last year’s median of $377,000.

As in most areas in El Dorado County, foreclosures played less of a role than they do in Sacramento County.  Four of the 29 homes that sold in the first quarter were short sales, and four were foreclosures, so the percentages in each case were 13.8%.

A corollary of the slow sales in the first quarter was that a number of listings expired.  As a result, the expired to sold ratio changed very dramatically from year to year, from 30.3% in 2007 to 169% in 2008.  As you might also expect, inventory is high at 12.1 months.