If the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, you can’t prove it by the home values in Granite Bay, which have fallen along with home values everywhere else in the local area.  One might say the rich get poorer more slowly.

Sales in Granite Bay have increased in recent months, but August was the exception to this rule.  Only 25 homes sold in Granite Bay in August, down 26.5% from last August’s volume of 34 units.  Sold price per square foot has dropped 21.2% during this time, from $287.31 in August of 2007 to an average of $226.37 in August of 2008.  Coupled with this year’s home being 11.5% smaller and now being only a measly 3,070 square feet on average, the average sale price fell 30.3% from year to year, from $996,500 in August of 2007 to $695,015 in August of 2008.  The median selling price of a home in Granite Bay fell 29.2% over the year, from $840,000 in August of 2007 to $595,000 in August of 2008.

Almost a third of the homes that sold in Granite Bay in August were bank foreclosures, with eight foreclosures selling out of 25 total sales.  No short sales closed in August, so the remaining 68% of all homes that closed were non-distressed sales.

5.6% of the homes currently listed in Granite Bay are bank foreclosures, and another 9.1% of all listings are short sales.