Placer County’s real estate statistics have been taking quite a dive, especially in the past few months.  As a result, the year on year decreases are bigger now than they were even a few months ago.  Overall, now this is a great market in Placer County if you’re a buyer, and a lousy market in if you’re a seller.

Looking at all residential listings (which includes condos as well as single family homes as well as certain other categories such as manufactured homes), the average home sold in Placer County in February for $388,680, down 22.1% from last February’s average of $499,095.  The median sale price fell 19.4% during the same period, from $434,000 to $350,000, while the sold price per square foot dropped 26.4%, from an average of $234.76 in February of 2007, to $172.67 in February of 2008.

Bank foreclosures and short sales are fueling the price declines.  In February of 2007, only 5.3% of all sales were foreclosures or short sales; a year later, that number has risen ten-fold, to 53% of all sales.  Foreclosures especially are the big sellers, with 44.7% of all sales in February in that category, as opposed to only 8.3% short sales.

Prices continued to fall in Roseville in February, with the year-to-year price declines higher in February than we reported last year.  The average home sold in February in Roseville for $367,376, down 17.4% from last February’s average of $390,500.  The median price of $348,243 was down 10.8% from last February’s median price of $390,500.  Since this year’s home was slightly larger than last year’s (2070 square feet versus 1992 last year), the average sold price per square foot fell even faster than the average price, dropping 20.5% from $223.19 in February of 2007 to $177.48 in February of 2008.

In Roseville — and everywhere else — bank foreclosures continue to attract buyers in droves.  With only 14.9% of active inventory currently a bank foreclosure, these homes nevertheless accounted for 47.2% of all sales in February (compared to only 4.8% a year ago). 

With short sales, the supply versus sales numbers are just the opposite.  31.9% of active inventory are short sales, but only 6.6% of sales in February were short sales.  Many buyers simply don’t have the patience to wait three months for the house they chose to close, and we’ve even had one case where the buyer canceled because by the time the short sale was approved, the perceived bargain had been eroded by the changing market.  In other words, the short sale started out as "a deal" and ended up being just another house.

In other indicators for Roseville, the expired to sold ratio is up slightly, from 41.3% in February of 2007 to 59.4% in February of 2008.  Unit volume is up slightly, from 104 units to 106, but remember we had an extra day this February due to the leap year.  Average days on market are down slightly, from 70 to 66.