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.