Over the last year, prices in Roseville have dropped quite a bit, but inventory is low by area standards and unit volume is strong, so buyers are continuing to take advantage of these price drops.

This January in Roseville, the average home sold for $371,007, down 13.3% from last year’s average price of $427,923.  Since this year’s average home was 2063 square feet versus last January’s average of 1959, the net effect is that the sold price per square foot indicator fell more rapidly than the average price.  It dropped 17.7% from year to year.  The median selling price this January was $344,500, down 12.2% from last year’s median of $392,350.

Bank owned foreclosures (REOs) are the top sellers in Roseville.  50.6% of the homes that sold in January were bank owned.  In active inventory, in contrast, bank owned properties make up only 15.4% of available homes. 

Short sales — those homes that have not yet been foreclosed on but where the seller is asking the bank to approve a sale that will not fully pay off the loan — in contrast, sell less briskly, and account for only 9.9% of all sales in January, but 28.5% of active inventory.

Although the inventory of Roseville homes is relatively low at 6.7 months, as the number of short sales and foreclosures continues to grown through 2008, I expect to see continued price drops as banks continue to try to unload their inventory.