Over on my Sacramento Blog, I’ve been discussing how Sacramento County real estate sales are starting to heat up in a big way, fueled by high foreclosure rates and huge year-on-year price reductions.  I believe that we’ll see prices start to improve in Sacramento County as early as next year, as fewer option ARM resets hit the books (though depending on how you slice and dice those numbers, that may be an overly optimistic assessment). 

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.

Vicki Agregado-Babcock just listed this beautiful home in her own neighborhood of Deertrail Estates. I had the pleasure of touring this home and taking pictures earlier this week, and this is one of the best we’ve seen in some time.

2701 Sandhurst Drive, Cameron Park, CA

Location: Deertrail Estates

Wanted: bright, open floor plan. Competitively priced, yet not a short sale or foreclosure. Immaculately remodeled within the last few years. A big, shady, corner lot with a big back yard. All this in a fantastic location with great schools. Stop looking, we found it for you, and it would be an honor to show it to you. Or call your agent and get her to show you this before it’s gone.

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Contact Information

Vicki Agregado-Babcock

(530) 409-1100

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Pricing

Asking Price: $399,900.00

Property Location

2701 Sandhurst Drive
Cameron Park, CA 95682
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Features

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2

Parking: Ample

Year Built: 1987

Subdivision: Deertrail Estates

Lot Size: .253

Garage Size: 2 car

School District: Rescue Union / El Dorado Union

Square Footage: 1640

Agent Name: Vicki Agregado-Babcock

Broker: Elite Properties

MLS #: 80055485

Attributes

Appliances

Range/Oven

Dishwasher

Sink Disposal

Microwave

Interior Amenities

Security System

Exterior Amenities

Fenced Yard

Trek deck

Photo Gallery

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VFLYER ID: 1693151

Vicki Agregado-Babcock is holding her beautiful listing at 3262 Sandhurst Court open on Sunday, May 18th, from 1PM to 4PM. 

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

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.

Those of you that are homebrewers (called Zymurgy, go figure!) should consider coming to the HAZE club meeting at the Wine Smith in downtown Placerville tonight at 7 p.m.

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.

I rarely have trouble taking sides with most issues, but today’s article in the Sacramento Bee about homeowners upset with Placer County’s budding wineries for ruining their country living peace and quiet is just difficult for me. There is no greater proponent than me for your ability to enjoy your home in peace and not have to listen to loud music around you when you come home, but I must say I am happy to live close to wineries here in El Dorado and Amador Counties.

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.

Last year Bridget and I sponsored a Blogathon for Hunger, which, interestingly enough, raised no money online even though it was a blogathon, and raised a little bit of money offline.

This year I’m returning to the scene of the accident to see how much money I can can raise for this year’s Hunger Walk, sponsored by the  El Dorado County Food Bank.

I was feeling pretty badly about the donations a couple of hours ago.

What a difference a couple of hours make.

Last year online we raised $0.  This year thanks to the generous donation of New York Realtor, Laurie Mindnich (blog) — not only did we raise more than zero dollars, we reached our goal of raising $200 for the El Dorado County Food Bank.

But we don’t have to stop there.  Let’s see if that donation form still works if we go past our goal.

Remember, the El Dorado County food bank contributes $9.00 of food for every dollar in cash donations they receive.

Thank you, Laurie Mindnich, and congratulations on your achievement award!