The Houssee Award is an award for the best real estate content every week.  As much as possible, we try to pick the awards from the stories that received the most natural votes and comments from other Houssee.com users during the week (though sometimes in the case of ties or categories with no votes, we have to punt and the host has to pick a winner).

Congratulations to everyone who won and thank you to everyone who participated!  Winners, feel free to pick out a shirt in your size — wear it proudly under your gold Century 21 jacket.

The top vote-getter this week in the General category was Brian Block’s amusing video of the Desperate Realtor®.  Some of you may not know whether to laugh or cry when you see this one.  I was reminded of the two agents who knew one another back in the bad old days of 14% interest rates.  One of them came in grinning from ear to ear one day, and the other one asked why he was so happy. 

"I had two sales this week!", said the happy one.

"Really, that’s great", said his jealous colleague.

"That’s right", said the first, "my television and my car."

The Market Updates category was an eight-way tie, so we’ll single out two for special because they went beyond the usual recital of data (which is admittedly a staple of my own blog).  Michael Saunders’ Sarasota Real Estate Market Perks Up (with the catchy subtitle "Looking Down From Where We Used To Look Up From"), chronicles the Sarasota details behind a phenomenon that’s happing in many areas — as prices have fallen, unit sales have started to pick up.  Another winner in this category was the short but sweet look at how a single strong employer will help stimulate her local market in Christina Asad Edwards’ Economy Booster.

Hey investment writers — no new posts this week.  Could you have won easily?  You bet.

Melina Thompson’s I Think I’ll Wait for the Half Off Sale takes top honors in the Real Estate Marketing category.  Buy one house get one free?  Why not!

Listing Announcements — the category you didn’t vote for — was tied between a lot of listings, but since this week’s entries were all featured courtesy of Bill Gassett’s Blog, we’ll declare the blog the winner this week and let you go over there and check them out.  Hey look:  Bill plugged Houssee, too.  I just saw that while linking over.  Thanks, Bill!

The vote winner in the Mortgage category was Peter Thompson for his article FHA Is the New Conventional.  Although on the one hand Pete shows how FHA ended up filling the gap formerly served by conventional financing (instead of sub-prime as predicted), this article is also an excellent overview of many of the feature differences between FHA and conventional financing.

In the About Houssee / Winner’s category, you voted most for Houssee.com Passes 100 User Mark (And Other Updates).

Who will win a Houssee next week?  It’s up to you to let us know by submitting and voting for your favorite real estate articles.  Remember, Houssee winners are as much as possible based on natural votes, so please be aware of our spam policy, but other than that, come on by and dive in!

Are you interested in hosting a Houssee award on your blog?  If so, stay tuned to our Houssee Blog, where we’ll have instructions coming soon.

In El Dorado County, the story is a different one in several respects:

• The overall cost of homes is higher.
• There are fewer foreclosures and short sales available, though still many more in this market than in previous years.
• The Year on Year price reductions have been large enough to hurt, but still not as dramatic as Sacramento County.
• Because of the factors above, fewer first time buyers are entering the market and competing for homes.

The upshot is that while Sacramento County’s unit volume has soared 64.2% from May to May, in El Dorado County unit volume went down slightly, from 151 units in May of 2007 to 146 units in May of 2006.

This May’s average home sold for $429,434 in El Dorado County, down 20.3% from last May’s average of $538,590.  The median price has fallen 20% during the same period, from $488,000 to $390,500.  Sold price per square foot dropped 21.4%, from $242.61 in May of 2007 to $190.77 in May of 2008.

This year short sales and bank foreclosures made up 35.6% of the total sales, compared to 13.2% last year.  Short sales accounted for 7.5% of the total, and REOs made up 28.1%.  There are currently 12.4 months of inventory in El Dorado County.  The expired to sold ratio is up slightly this year — at 54.1% compared to 48% last year.  The average discount from list price for a sold home was 3.6%, compared to 4% last year.

Come check out this lovely home — I got a chance to preview it this past week and it’s definitely a keeper!

For more information about this lovely home, check out the following links:

• 3262 Sandhurst Court Web Site (with photo gallery)
• Map to Property 
• School Information
• Schedule a Showing

Location Information
County:	El Dorado	MLS Area:	12601
Cross Street:	Sandhurst	Census Tract:	0
Location:	Cul-De-Sac, Snow Line Below	Subdivision:	Deer Trail Estates
Directions:	Hwy 50, North on Cambridge Rd. go aprox. 2 miles. Turn left left on Sandhurst Dr.(across from entrance to Cameron Park Lake. Left on Sanhurst Ct to end.	Map:	Thomas Bros. (PL, SA), 263 C-4

Interior Features
Master Bedroom Description:	Closet, Ground Floor	Master Bathroom Description:	Closet, Remodeled/Updated, Shower Stall(s)
Other Bathrooms Description:	Tub w/Shower Over	Dining Room Description:	Breakfast Nook, Dining/Living Combo
Kitchen Description:	Counter Granite, Kitchen/Family Combo, Pantry Closet, Remodeled/Updated	Has Fireplace:	No
Number of Fireplaces:	0	Heating:	Central, Propane, Other-Attch
Cooling:	Central	Floors:	Carpet, Tile, Wood
Laundry:	220 Volt Hook-Up, Cabinets, Inside Room	Additional Equipment:	Cable TV Installed, DSL Possible, Window Furnishings
Appliances:	Dishwasher, Disposal, Ice Maker Plumbed, Microwave B/I, Oven Elec F/S

Exterior Features
Style:	Ranch	Stories:	1 Story
Construction:	Frame, Wood	Builder:	Peterson
Exterior:	Wood	Foundation:	Raised
Roof:	Comp Shingle	Water / Sewer:	In & Connected
Water:	Public District	Utilities:	220 Volts, All Public, Propane, Underground
Security System:	Smoke Detector	Parking Description:	2 Car Attached
Has Garage:	Yes	Landscaping:	Sprinkler Auto F&R, Sprinkler Auto Rear
Has a Pool:	No	Is Short Sale:	No
Is a Horse Property:	No	Exposure Faces:	North
Topography:	Lot Grade Varies, Lot Sloped, View Local, View Special	Elevation:	1300
Lot Size in Acres:	0.23	Lot Size in Sq. Ft.:	10019
Dimensions:	0	Zoning:	res
Energy Features:	Ceiling Fan(s), Dual Pane Full, Skylight	Improvements:	None
Road Description:	Paved, Public Maintained	Space Rent:	0

School
Elementary School:	Rescue Union	Jr. High School:	Rescue Union
High School:	El Dorado Union High

Additional Information
Property Type:	SFR	Property SubType:	1 House on Lot
Property SubType 2:	Detached, Remodeled/Updated	Year Built:	1988
APN:	116-482-08-10	Status:	Active
Other Structures:	Tool Shed	HOA Dues:	0

]]> http://www.placerville-realestate.com/2008/05/15/open-house-sunday-in-cameron-park/feed/ http://www.placerville-realestate.com/2008/04/29/pollock-pines-real-estate/ http://www.placerville-realestate.com/2008/04/29/pollock-pines-real-estate/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:59:56 +0000 John Lockwood http://www.placerville-realestate.com/2008/04/29/pollock-pines-real-estate/ 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.

• 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.

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.

We did trail off a bit in the writing at some point, as I moved on to other projects and Bridget decided that being serially verbose was not for her. However, I think we’ve managed to make the blog a fairly credible resource, especially for Amador County, which has no other similar site that I know of. Lately we’ve gotten a huge help from Purva Brown, who is doing a great job of helping me beat back the tremendous onslaught of blogs that I keep putting up. This will be post 135 — not a bad year’s work for a side project!

To me the site is special because its beginning also serves to mark the real beginning for my brokerage, even though on paper it started in July of 2006.

HAZE stands for Hangtown Association of Zymurgy Enthusiasts and although zymurgy covers fermentation of wine as well as beer, this is a beer maker’s meeting.

This will be my first meeting. I’m going along with my husband who is one of those zymurgists. You can visit the HAZE club website here. Apparently, they taste (TASTE, not drink) homebrews and discuss recipes and share secrets to make better beer.

This story explains it all.

I’m curious, especially from a marketing point of view as a Realtor. Does “winery minutes away” not count as a positive statement then?

And if you’re a wine enthusiast don’t expect prices on wine from these parts (El Dorado, Amador, and now Placer) drop any time soon. Not with this kind of resistance.