The biggest winner for the most change in Placer county this month is clearly the short sales chunk of real estate sales. While most of us in the real estate business (me included) like to warn our home buyers that short sales rarely sell – thanks to the bank approval process which can take longer than a month and sometimes never – we might have to change our tune. Closed short sales have undergone a 257% increase since year over year in Placer county and now make up 16% of all sales! Foreclosures, of course, continue to dominate the market at 47.6% of sales and non-distressed homes are at 36.2% – roughly a third, which is where they were last month as well.

Unit volume is up 19.8% year over year. However, non-distressed sales have fallen by 34% over last December.

The market seems largely unchanged over last month, but markedly different over last year in terms of prices as well. Sold price per square foot has fallen 22.3% year over year – from a high of $192.64 to $149.72. Last month, it was $155.52. The average sales price last month was $333,473. It is currently $322,245, not a huge change from last month, but a drop of 27% year over year, down from a high of $440,433. Median sales price is also down 18% year over year from $365,000 to $300,000 in December 2008.

Inventory in Placer county is currently at 5.8 months based on the last year of sales and 5.3 months based on the last six months of sales. This is better than last month’s numbers of 6.3 months and 5.5 months for the same period. Incidentally, this is the second month in a row of better inventory numbers.