Comparing the first half of 2006 to the first half of 2007 for Ione, California, we find the Ione real estate market characterized by a marked decline in prices — that’s the bad news.  The good news is that these price drops seem to be having an effect on the inventory on Ione, which is fairly low compared to the rest of Amador County.

Thirty-five residential units sold in the first six months of 2006, and by the first six months of 2007, that number had increased to thirty-nine units.  This year’s average home sold for $281,484, a 15.9% drop from last year’s average sold price of $334,814.  The sold price per square foot was not far from that — it dropped 15.2%.  The median sale price from January to June of 2007 was $305,000, down 9% from last year’s median price of $335,000.  The time it takes to sell, expressed as average days on market, have gone up to over six months (187 days), a 53% increase from last year’s average of 122.

There are currently sixty-five units active in Ione, and with 80 selling over the course of the last year, this puts inventory at ten months.  This is a high figure, but low compared to the rest of Amador County, which has an average inventory of 14.8 months.

Here’s our slide show for Bridget Felmley-Gay’s fabulous East Marlette Listing.

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major appears courtesy the good people at Musopen.com.  Our thanks as well as Aaron Dunn and the Bucharest College Orchestra, who were good enough to put this performance into the public domain.

We’ll have more about this listing in momentarily. 

Bridget’s listing on 314 Marlette Drive, Ione, has just been reduced to $459,900 (formerly $485,000). 

Don’t let the small pictures fool you — this house is huge at 3,330 square feet.  Moreover, the way it’s laid out make it ideal for a daycare, extended family, or perhaps (with a little work) a home with a separate rental?  That’s because this beautiful 5 bedroom 3 bath house is laid out like two homes in one, with three bedrooms and two baths, with living room, formal dining room, and kitchen upstairs.  Downstairs includes 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchenette, den, a large family room, and outside access. 

Buyer should check with county for intended use, but this is definitely a great opportunity, now at an even better price.

Get the full listing details or schedule a showing.

HOPE Flyer    Are you looking to buy a home in Amador or El Dorado counties? We are holding a workshop to help you prepare yourself for the home buying process,  on Saturday March 10th from 9am-1pm at Placer Title in Jackson, you will have the opportunity to talk with lenders, Amador County Realtors, Title & Escrow officers, and receive assistance in understanding your credit.  Please call or e-mail Bridget at Bridget@BridgetSells.com  (530) 306-9111 reservations or required. We will have a list of homes in various price ranges in areas such as: Plymouth, Ione, Sutter Creek, Jackson, Pine Grove, Mt Aukum, Fairplay, and River Pines.

Although it may seem that Winter has just begun, Spring will be upon us in no time and with that, the desire to venture out and see something new. Why not visit Amador County, with endless possibilities for recreation and fun. Everything from Skiing at Kirkwood to having too much fun at the Jackson Rancheria. Please find the following events and feel free to contact me should you have any questions. Bridget@BridgetSells.com (don’t forget to ask for a list of available properties!)

• FEB-Full Moon Snowshoe Trek @ Kirkwood
• MAR-Daffodil Hilll
• APR-The Great Sutter Creek Duck Race
• MAY-Annual Ione Homecoming
• JUN-OCT-Amador Farmers Market
• JULY 26-29 AMADOR COUNTY FAIR

Let’s get this straight, Bridget’s the Amador County Expert, not me.  Bridget probably knew where Lake Camanche was off the top of her head.  She probably takes her family swimming there, and has many happy memories of Lake Camanche.

I’ve been led to the lake largely by inference and the MLS.  The MLS tells me that the area we call Lake Camanche is in Ione.

Live and learn.

I’m also assuming it’s a body of water, what with being named “Lake Camanche” and all.  But wait, my research skills coming into their own in full force, I was able to discover that this is a great place to go Bass Fishing, if you’re not a vegetarian, anyway.  If you are a vegetarian like me, you probably shouldn’t go bass fishing.  But when I was younger, I wasn’t a vegetarian, and I used to like to go bass fishing, so I get it about how you probably don’t want some stupid vegetarian telling you what to do.

There aren’t a lot of houses out in Lake Camanche.  Actually there probably are few if any “in” the lake — they’d get wet.  But there aren’t a lot around Lake Camanche, is what I’m trying to say.  Only four sold last November.  Only one sold this November.  No, I’m not even going to tell you what the median price of one house is.  That would be silly.  However, I will say that in addition to knowing intuitively that Lake Camanche probably had water in it, I can tell you that the average home sold for the same price as the median home, and that the high and low prices likewise didn’t vary, when that one home was sold.

Oh what the heck, I can’t resist:  $323,000.

I may be visiting Lake Camanche in my fabulous Amador County adventure, which is any day now.

I just had to use that title once.

I’ll try not to wear it out.

Having just gotten through singing the praises of Jackson’s strong market, we now turn to Ione and paint a much darker picture. I think many of the differences in the two communities also point out what we’ve been saying all along about our Amador County statistics in general — small sample sizes mean results may swing pretty widedly from one sample to the next.

Ten units sold in Ione last November, as opposed to only three this year, which is a fairly huge drop in volume. The low number for this year’s sales in turn feeds back into how we calculate inventory, so with 68 units in inventory we come up with an alarming 22 months worth. (Of course, if 10 units sell next month, that will be down to 6.8 months — so keep your eye on those sample sizes).

The average sold price per square foot dropped 13.8% from November to November, while all other indicators were up. What this means in practice is that this year a buyer spent about as much for a home as last year ($303,840 in November 2005 versus $304,518 in November 2006), but this year’s buyer found his money buying a home that was 16.3% bigger, at 1813 square feet compared to last year’s 1558 square feet.

And with that, I have to turn my attention to El Dorado County rather literally, and go meet a seller there. More blogathon fun when we return.

I mentioned in an earlier post that it can be difficult to generalize about a market that’s very small in size. The reason is that as the number of houses you’re talking about gets very small, it’s possible that you can misinterpret an artifact of the small sample size as some kind of trend.

Having said that, please take my Ione numbers with a large grain of salt. Only seven homes sold there last October, and four homes this October, so our sample size is a small one indeed. Based on that small sample, however, the average sale price is up 12.2% from year to year, from $340,128 last year to $381,750 this year. At the same time, the median sale price rose from $310,000 to $387,000, a 24.8% increase.