Placer county has always been different from Sacramento county and this month’s market report underlines that fact. While in Sacramento county, foreclosures have fueled falling prices and higher sales all around, Placer county has seen a decline in sales. There has been in fact a drop of 18.4% in overall sales from last October to this October. Foreclosures however saw an almost 100% increase - from 58 last October to 114 this last month. Last year, the majority of sales were non-distressed (74.7%); this October they are evenly divided between foreclosures on one side and non-distressed and short sales on the other. See? I told you Placer county was its own story.

That said, Placer county has not been immune to the price declines we are seeing everywhere. Sold price per square foot was down 21.4% over last October to rest at $161.99. Average sales price is down 19.5% from last October’s high of $458,127 to $368,980. Median price is down 22.4% from $399,680 (October 2007) to $310,000 this October.

Based on the last 12 months of sales, inventory in Placer county sits at 7.3 months and based on the last 6 months of sales inventory sits at 6.2 months.

Looking for something to do this Halloween? Here are two highly recommended events you can attend:

Trick or Treat Faire at Sunset Center in Rocklin

Just for kids! (Accompanied by an adult) An event for kids at the elementary school age and younger. Dress up your young tots and take them to their first (of fifth) Halloween to do some trick or treating. Tickets are $5 per child and you might get to eat the candy yourself! From 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. A great alternative to traditional neighborhood trick or treating, the city of Rocklin organizes this event each year as a safer option. There are games, prizes and treat bags! And prizes are awarded for the best costume, so dress them up!

Callson Manor Haunted House

If you’re looking for a more serious… er… fright, head over to the Callson Manor Haunted House at the Placer County Fairgrounds in Roseville, which promises to be “an attraction of a higher caliber.” Tickets are $30 for the entire attraction. The Haunted House is open between 7:30 and 10:30 p.m.

Although their website doesn’t say anything about children and what ages are recommended, use your own discretion. And have a screaming good time!

I, for one, will be shivering under the sheets.

Where is everyone in Placer county going? Total volume of homes sold in September has almost doubled as compared to last September going from 245 homes sold to 455 sold in September 2008.

Foreclosures sold have more than quadrupled and so have short sales. What’s surprising is that almost the same number of non-distressed properties have also sold, which is not seen as often. Non-distressed sales seem to have an inverse relationship to foreclosures and short sales. Placer county seems to prove that theory wrong. Distressed properties now make up more than half the real estate sales in Placer county - 55% of homes sold in September were either foreclosures or short sales.

Maybe everyone just waited until September of this year to buy. With the average sales price falling 28.4% over last September who can blame them? The average sales price is now $348,455 bringing the average price per square foot to $161.57

Inventory in Placer county sits at 7.2 months based on the last 12 months of sales and 5.8 months based on the last 6 months of sales.

Perhaps you already live here… but maybe you want to know more. Here are five of the most commonly cited reasons for people to move to Roseville:

Proximity to downtown Sacramento, but really - who needs it?

Roseville used to be one of those cities which was nice to live in because it was so close to Sacramento. Unless you are in commute traffic, the distance to downtown Sacramento - about 20 miles - can be covered in approximately a half hour. But lately, if you hate the commute, you can skip it. Roseville has become one of the fastest growing commercial hubs, with malls, offices and restaurants that can put downtown Sacramento to shame. And more businesses (hospitals, malls, restaurants) are moving to Roseville, making it a city to commute to, not from.

Have you Noticed how Clean it is?

Sure, there are older parts of Roseville that are charming and, er… hard to drive through. But the newer areas and especially the business districts have been planned with a focus on cleanliness and an eye toward making roads and neighborhoods pleasant to look at and drive around in. The city of Roseville also passed a law in the 1990s mandating nine acres of parks for every 1000 residents, twice the amount required by other cities in California of the same size. The city continues to follow a policy to maintain miles of trails for biking and walks along greenbelts.

Speaking of Biking…

The League of American Bicyclists recently awarded Roseville the Bicycle Friendly Community Award - Roseville was the first city in Placer county to receive this award. And why not? Roseville has 83 miles of on street bike lanes and 27 miles of off-street paths. It also hosts an annual bicycle event - the Roseville Bikefest. This year’s event occured on October 4th at Quail Glen Elementary School.

The Schools, the Schools!

I’m sure there are numbers out there to prove it, but you cannot beat word-of-mouth. One of the biggest reasons cited by home buyers in Roseville is the schools. Even when they would rather live in the country, most home buyers - if they are parents - will pick a home in the greater Roseville area for the proximity to nature trails, hiking, and fishing, while staying within the Roseville city school district.

Historic Old Town Roseville

If you’re bored on any evening, you can always head over to Historic old town Roseville. It has recently received a 13 million dollar facelift! The Historic Old Town Merchant’s Association also organizes special events like the Strawberry Festival in spring and a car show in the summer. Main street is shut down for these events and it’s a great place to bring family and friends or just hang out by yourself. Whether you are looking for a good restaurant, shopping or are looking for a quiet time in a museum, you can find it here in Old Town.

Convinced yet? Or maybe you didn’t need to be. Maybe you’ve loved Roseville all along and have wanted to buy a home here since you were a child. Well, what are you waiting for? A list of available homes, perhaps? Allrighty then. Go here!

I’ve been working on a report showing price changes by area in Placer County so you can see which areas are retaining their values better / worse than others.

One thing I do have to add to the chart, however, is some detail about how many units are selling.  Without that data, you can get into some pretty interesting — and wrong — conclusions.  For example, is Applegate really booming?   Well, it sure looks like it, until you realize that in each month shown (August of ‘07 and August of ‘08), exactly one home sold in Applegate, so the numbers are about as statistically in-significant as they can be.

Be that as it may, you can check out how your areas have done here in a rough way, and we’ll have an improved version of this information going forward.

Placer County Area By Area Price Changes

I’ve fixed a few bugs and added data to support more community pages.

We now have basic community information and active and sold listing maps in place for:

• Sacramento County
• El Dorado County
• Placer County

There’s still a long way to go on the bug fixing and improving the look of the pages.  I was learning how to do map mash ups at the time, and at the same time sometimes being too clever with the fonts, so it’s none too pretty, but I can clean that as we go.