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.

Kathy here, posting my first blog of the blogathon. Helen is with me, observing. She’s already learned how to do the market research. Now she’s learning how to post her results in a blog. I did a little research on our glamorous neighbor to the west, El Dorado Hills.

So here is what we’ve learned about El Dorado Hills. The average list price for November 2005 was $704,820. This year the number has gone up 4%, making the Average list price for November 2006 $733,128. That was a surprise to us since we thought that the market was going down. But that was only the list price. Sellers, of course do not want the market to go down. The average Selling price stayed pretty close to the same as last year for the same time period. The selling price for November 2005 was $694,661. This year the number is up 1.5%, making the Average selling price for November 2006 $705,164. Interestingly enough the average list price last November is virtually the same as the average selling price this November. And the average number of days on market has risen 21.6% But the most significant figure we saw was the drop in unit sales. For November 2005 the number of houses sold was 53. This November there were only 27 sold, making a drop of 49.1%. So by raising the list price while there are fewer buyers, sellers are getting the result you would expect — fewer sales.
So there you have it folks. And tomorrow, Helen will tell you about what’s happening in Folsom