In our last post we examined the huge downturn that took place in El Dorado County in January, allowing El Dorado County’s drop in prices to catch up with those in other areas. Today we turned our focus to Amador county, and we find relatively mild year on year depreciation.  At some point in the future we should be publishing price curve charts for the four main counties we cover, but for now, let’s look at Amador’s numbers for January.

Twenty-eight residential units sold in January, a mild downturn from last January’s unit volume of 33 units.  As always in winter, unit volume is down from the yearly average.  Throughout 2006, 493 units were sold in Amador County, for an average of 41.8 units per month.  Based on that average, our current stock of 467 homes works out to be an inventory of 11.4 months.

Both the average size of homes that sold and the average price dropped, making the real drop in prices less dramatic than it first appears.   Last January’s average price was $353,848 for an average sized home of 1,661 square feet, while this January the average home was 1507 square feet and fetched $310,385.  Thus, though the average price appeared to drop 12.3%, the average sold price per square foot really only dropped 3.3%.  The median price dropped most dramatically of all our indicators from $365,000 to $301,000.

Days on market were up to just under six months at 179 days, a 53% increase from last Janauary’s average days on market of 117 days.

In a future post we’ll take a look back at 2006 and see how the whole year did compared to 2005.  Since we’re dealing with relatively small numbers of home overall in Amador, a yearly view should give us a more statistically significant picture of what’s “really” happening to Amador County’s real estate prices.

Well, with February almost upon us, I can sense the excitement Bridget feels about a new set of statistics to write about!

Oh my gosh — two months with me and she’s already in danger of being a nerd! I have that effect on people. With some people after just a few minutes they’ll go out and buy a pocket protector or put tape on their glasses.

But Bridget’s pretty safe, because she’s doing a simply wonderful job out in Amador County, and whatever other county she travels to as well.

This has been a terrific month for the company. Two new agents joined us, Vicki Agregado-Babcock, who lives out by me in Cameron Park and Susan Norris, who lives in East Sacramento. This means we now have three strong agents working in three counties (actually four strong agents if you count the verbose broker).

Bridget has sold her listing on Wheeler Loop in Plymouth, and is burning the candle at both ends between listings and sales.

As for me, I’m working with a smaller number of buyers and sellers and trying to get organized enough to keep up with it all. I’m looking into new software and systems for the company, and trying to nail down many of the other happy tasks you’d expect Joe Startup to have. It’s a time of tremendous excitement and growth for me personally, so I’m jazzed about that. I think on some level that enjoying a leadership role on a productive and creative team of people is something I’ve longed for on some level for the past ten years. Of course, I’m sure there will be ups and downs as time goes on, but as for right now I’m thinking you can’t beat my job with an aluminum bat.

     I would like to share some news about our famous Amador County and our progress toward helping those whom without programs like, H.O.P.E. would be unable to own a piece of Amador County Real Estate. We resumed our H.O.P.E. meetings this morning at the Amador County Board of Realtors and had a great turnout. Thank-you to all of those who attended, Barbara Nichols  and Gina Grubb from Diablo Funding, Susan Brown and Diana Rethford from Placer Title, Cathy Yochheim from Coldwell Banker, and of course myself, Bridget Felmley-Gay from Elite Properties. H.O.P.E. is also known as Homeownership Opportunity Planning Enterprise, the Amador County Association of Realtors and local lenders and title companies have teamed up to help assist you with the purchase of a home. The funds are donated by local Amador County Realtors,  loan officers, escrow officers, concerned citizens, and federal grants. There are some qualifications, one being the willingness to provide your new home with “sweat equity”. The funds typically help pay for improvements and items like pest work. If you would like more information regarding donations or an application for funds please contact Bridget@BridgetSells.com (877) 735-5657 ext 82 or the Amador County Board of Realtors (209) 223-3874.

      H.O.P.E. is offering a “Workshop” on Saturday March 10th at 10 am at Placer Title in Jackson. The workshop will focus on helping you to get your credit to the point of qualifying to purchase a home. For more information or to sign up for the workshop contact Bridget@BridgetSells.com (877) 735-5657 ext 82.

Looking at our local Amador MLS, it appears that Amador City and Drytown currently have six beautiful homes active on the market. Amador City is a quiet little town located just south of Highway 16 on Highway 49. This little town includes an abundance of history, great food and shopping.

    Plymouth, currently has eighteen homes active on the market in the local Amador MLS. Plymouth is a slightly larger town than Amador City and Drytown. Amador County holds their annual fair in Plymouth. Plymouth leads the way to our gorgeous Shenandoah Valley, where there are currently a couple vineyard and winery properties available.

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

November 2006 was a slow month in Pioneer residentilal sales considering the market of a year ago.  Sales were down substantially, with only three units selling in November as compared to nine in November of 2006.

To be sure, nine units is statistically compelling, and three units is downright unrepresentative, but let’s plow ahead boldly anyway and see what we can make of things.

The average home that sold in Pioneer this November was considerably smaller and more inexpensive than last year’s average. The average sale price was down 30.5%, from $342,333 to $238,000, which looks like some kind of catastophy until you realize that this year’s average home was also 37% smaller at 1060 square feet than last year’s 1615 square feet.  As a result, the sold price per square foot ratio actually rose during this peirod, from $215 per square foot to $237 per square foot.

Here are a few nice Amador County Wildlife photos for you to enjoy.

“See the deer.  Does the deer have a little doe?”

“Yeah, two bucks.”

I have the best job in the world, I really do.

It looks like congratulations are in order to Bridget on what’s shaping up to be Elite Properties’ 2007 “New Years’ Baby” escrow, her listing at 9431 Wheeler Loop in Plymouth.

Three years after my hungry first year in this business, I still get all excited whenever there’s talk of an escrow. I love escrows, especially the closed ones that we do. I just want to be there for all the little escrows of the world, and give them all a great big hug from Papa Johnnie.

C’mere, you!

This just proves that so far our Amador County Elite Properties office is winning the John Lockwood Associates coveted “Office of the Year” award, for the year about to start.

Those slackers over in the Sacramento Office had better straighten up and fly right, or they’re going to find myself out of a job.

[Editor's note:  This was written before the Sacramento Office had any slackers besides the author.]

A few minutes after crossing over the Amador County line on my great adventure of the same name, I spotted civilization in the form of an intersection, where the Native Amadorians had established a settlement of sorts.

Following the tradition of my New England Ancestors, I decided to land here and name this settlement “Plymouth”.

(Actually by way of full disclosure, that’s a bit misleading. I did have New England Ancestors, but they weren’t Englishmen landing at Plymouth in search of religious freedom. They were Frenchmen travelling south from Canada in search of economic freedom in the form of textile factories).

Now back to our adventure.

It turned out the Amadorians were a friendly and welcoming race, engaged primarily in the export of wine and the basic Cafe service industries. An advanced people, they erected signs for the benefit of their visitors.

These signs described exotic places like Villa Toscano, Kelson Creek, Renwood, Karmere, and the Plymouth House Inn. (I was somewhat chagrined to discover later that many of these exotic places had already been visited by web site developers). Zinfandels, I discovered, were quite popular.

From this parking lot I established a sort of photographic beach head, and determined to chronical a great deal about the local commerce.

The Sierra Trading Post was across the street.

It had what appearted to be an ATM, but I did not explore further.

I did go in to visit Marlene and Glen’s, an indigenous diner. The gentleman there was extremely pleasant, so I told him I would tell people to go there and order food and beverages.

You should go there. It was very pleasant. The coffee was good.

They have record albums on many of the walls, including the rest rooms. This was a custom so strange I knew I would not be believed if I did not return with a photo.

By the way, this is part 3 or thereabouts of the Photos of John’s Great Amador County adventure.

Well, what sort of tourist would I be if I didn’t take pictures?

(The kind who blogged video? Hey, be gentle with me, I live in El Dorado County. What do you think this is, “Silicone Valley”? Yes, people around here really do call it “Silicone Valley” half the time. I think they’re confusing it with Hollywood, but that’s a whole different post).

So anyway, during yesterday’s big Amador County Adventure, naturally I took some pictures, as proof that I’m not some guy just hanging around my comfortable den in Cameron Park, but nay, indeed, really did make it as far as the Mel’s in Jackson.

Here’s proof that at one point I was preparing to leave the safe known known (thanks, Donald Rumsfeld) of El Dorado County, in the form of my not-too-fuzzy picture of Poor Red’s:

For those of you who don’t think “Poor Red’s” is a local landmark, I once had a “floor call” from my web site in which I was asked how far a given house was to Poor Red’s. As it turns out, Poor Red’s is pretty close to where my daughter goes to High School, but it’s even closer to the turn off from Pleasant Valley Road onto route 49, which is El Dorado County’s preferred method for getting out to Amador if that’s the kind of big adventure you’re having.

So Many El Dorados, So Little Time

Poor Red’s is in El Dorado. El Dorado is a small town, so I’m tempted to say that that’s all that’s there, but that does it an injustice. Adding insult to injury, if the local folks here tend to say “Silicone Valley”, people from out of the area have a tendency to get completely confused about the difference between El Dorado and El Dorado Hills. So here’s a brief primer.

El Dorado Hills has the Serrano Country Club and subdivision, and is just west of Cameron Park and East of Folsom. Those who love it call it an “exquisite upscale community” or the like. Those who hate it are prone to characterize it as a “fashionable McMansion development.” I should say in defense against those who hate it that there are a lot of other really neat subdivisions out there with more unique custom homes, like Waterford. I love Waterford.

El Dorado has Poor Red’s, a couple of high schools, a gun shop, a smackerel of small town charm, good prices, and is just a bit west / south of Placerville.

Now, for an advanced lesson: Both El Dorado Hills and El Dorado are in El Dorado County.

Placerville is also in El Dorado County, not Placer County.

Everyone feeling OK at this point? Good.