Short sales seem to be the new gold mine in real estate and Roseville is no exception to the rule. Although we see an overall decline in unit volume, short sales are up! A total of 82 homes sold in Roseville - 45 foreclosure sales, 17 short sales and 20 non-distressed homes. Foreclosure sales have suffered a decline of 13.5% year over year and non-distressed sales also show a decline of 60% for the same period. But short sales have gained 143%! Overall unit volume is down 25% year over year.

Sold price per square foot has declined 21.4% year over year. Currently at $138.86, it has fallen from its high of $176.73 of last February, which seems to have afforded some homebuyers a home bigger by about 5% than last year! Of course, the average sales price being down by 18% may have something to do with that as well. It is currently at $301,472 down from $366,384. Median sales price is down 21% from $350,000 to $277,500.

Inventory in Roseville is at 2 months (based on the last year of sales) and 2.2 months (based on the last six months of sales).

Hey, what do you know, I get to deliver good news this morning! February, for being the shortest month has managed to surprise us with some pretty decent real estate numbers. But, all in good time. First, the not so great news: unit volume is down again in Placer county. A total of 245 homes sold in February, down 9% year over year. Foreclosure sales gained 0.8%, non-distressed sales lost 36.2% and short sales gained a whopping 95.5% year over year. This is almost the same as last month so nothing huge to report here.

Now, for the good news. I should add this is less that great since the numbers still show a decline year over year but prices look better than last month. The average sold price per square foot is $147.96, down 14.2% year over year, but higher than last month’s $146.59. Not huge, but better than a decline, wouldn’t you say? The average sales price is $327,033, again a decline of 15.7% year over year but looking so much better than last month’s $303,539! Median sales price, also down 15.7% year over year looks much better at $295,000 than it did last month at $279,608.

Inventory is much, much lower than last month: 3.3 months based on the last year of sales and 3.6 months based on the last six months of sales.

The Rocklin real estate landscape is not much changed since last year: 39 homes sold this January as compared with 36 last January. The major difference - of course - is in the kind of homes that sold. Foreclosure sales are up 69.2% year over year: 22 this January as compared with 13 last. And non-distressed sales are down 50%. Just 8 non-distressed homes sold this year as compared with 16 last year. Which makes the majority of home sales in Rocklin distress sales. In fact, 79.5% of sales are either foreclosures or short sales, with only a fifth of all sales falling in the non-distressed category.

The prices don’t tell any better news either: The average price per square foot has fallen 19.2% from $175.81 to $142.10 year over year. The average sales price has fallen 27.7% year over year from $411,807 to rest at $297,916. The median sales price has fallen 20.6% for the same period from $352,450 to $280,000. Interestingly enough, the average home sold in Rocklin is also 10% smaller this year than last. So the most accurate measure of home prices here is the average price per square foot.

Inventory is at 4.6 months based on the last year of sales and 4.8 months based on the last six months of sales. Foreclosure inventory is at 0.9 months.

Short sales take the cake again! Now you might ask why short sales? Why the smallest number in all the sales? Well, that’s because they seem to have the largest change. A total of 270 homes sold in Placer county in January of which 139 were foreclosure sales, 46 were short sales and 85 were non-distressed properties. In terms of percentages they seem the same as last month, but year over year, short sales have seen 100% increase. Now, the numbers do not tell us how long these short sales have remained open escrows, but suffice it to say that they are beginning to close.

Overall unit volume is up by 24% while non-distressed homes suffered a decline in sales of about 15% year over year.

The average home sold for 26.1% less this January than it would have last year at the same time. Today’s average sales price is $303,539 as compared to the high last January of $410,805. A more accurate measure, the sold price per square foot doesn’t offer up much to cheer either. It shows a decline of 21.4% year over year from $186.45 to $146.59. Median sales price is down 19% year over year from $345,000 to $279,608.

Inventory in Placer county is at 5.9 months based on the last year of sales and six months based on the last six months of sales. Of course, that doesn’t tell the entire story because foreclosure inventory is much, much lower at 1.6 months and 1.5 months respectively. The more worrisome number is the short sale inventory at 17.6 months and 15.1 months. Here’s hoping that the recent surge in closed short sales rises and gives the rest of us some hope in this real estate market!

Perhaps the banks are finally getting a grasp on the seriousness of the real estate downturn and are beginning to accept short sales now. That definitely seems to be the case in Lincoln anyway. We are seeing a 367% increase in short sales year over year along with a 58% increase in foreclosure sales. Non-distressed home sales suffered a decline of 22.2% year over year. Overall unit volume is up by 35%. 61.3% of all sales are now distress sales, while the rest are non-distressed. When we compare that with how evenly distressed and non-distressed sales were divided last year at the same time, we get a better idea of the current real estate market in Lincoln.

Sold price per square foot has fallen 17% year over year. It has dropped from a high of $165.72 to today’s low of $137.65. Average sales price has also fallen 17%. The average home in Lincoln is now worth only $313,464 as compared to its price last December at $376,901. Median sales price has dropped 13% from $337,500 to today’s low of $295,000.

Inventory in Rocklin is at 5.4 months based on the last year of sales  and 5.1 months based on the last six months of sales. There are currently 440 properties on the market for sale.

Whereas on the face of it, nothing really has changed with unit volume in Rocklin year over year, the underlying numbers are interesting to see. 51 homes sold last December and 51 homes sold this December as well. Aha! But which 51? Whereas last December only 10 of the 51 were distress sales, today 34 of the 51 are either foreclosures or short sales. Foreclosure sales in Rocklin are up 200% and short sales are up 600%. Non-distress sales then of course are down 58.5% year over year.

Sold price per square foot in Rocklin is down year over year by 10.6%. It has gone from $169.53 last December to $151.48 this December. This is going to be our most accurate measure of prices, since the average home sold this December in Rocklin was also 15% smaller than last year. Average sales price has fallen 24% year over year from a high of $461,995 to $350,696. Median sales price sees a decline of 32% from $455,000 to 309,000 for the same period.

Current inventory in Rocklin is at 4.2 months based on the last 12 months of sales and 4 months based on the last 6 months of sales. Foreclosure inventory interestingly is at 0.9 and 0.8 months!

The Roseville real estate market landscape is mostly unchanged from last month. Distress sales still make up the majority of all sales here. 59% of all sales are now distress sales. In the month of December especially 54 foreclosures and 23 short sales sold, as compared with only 52 non-distressed home sales. The major difference is the year over year number for short sales: an increase of over 283%! Foreclosure sales were up by 64% and non-distressed sales declined by 7%. Overall unit volume sales increased by 36% year over year.

Average sold price per square foot in Roseville has now dropped 19.2% from its high of $182.60 to $147.46 year over year. Average sale price has dropped 15% from $364,187 to $308,579. Obviously, nothing to cheer about, unless you are looking to buy a home in or around Roseville. This is evidenced by the average home sold in Roseville, which is now 5% bigger than it was last year at the same time. Median price has also dropped - a 10% decline year over year - from $335,000 to rest at $300,600.

Inventory is at 3.9 months based on the average homes sold over the last year and 3.6 months based on the number of homes sold in Roseville in the last six months.

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.

Unit volume in Roseville has increased 15.5% over last November. Now this might not seem like a large number until you see that foreclosure sales are up 250% and short sales are up 67% for the same period. Only non-distressed sales have seen a drop in unit volume: a 51% drop, to be precise. 63 foreclosures sold in November in Roseville, 20 short sales also sold and the remaining 36 were non-distressed sales.

53% of all sales are now foreclosures, 17% are short sales and the rest non-distressed. Roseville is amongst the few areas in the tri-county area where a large third of all sales are non-distressed. We seem to see non-distressed sales take up a smaller and smaller portion of the sales pie every month.

And the reason (or it could be a chicken or egg question here) is that prices have fallen 21%. Average price per square foot has gone from a high of $192.58 last November to $151.92 this November. Average sales price also dropped 22% for the same period: from $383,670 to $299,792. Median sales price also suffered a loss of 19% from $364,900 to $295,000.

Inventory is at 4.4 months based on the last year of sales and at 3.7 months based on the last 6 months of sales.

Well, it’s nice to know that someone out there likes big houses! Whereas everywhere else, smaller and smaller homes are being sold, Lincoln has remained steady in its appreciation of big rambling homes. The average house selling in Lincoln is still right around 2200 square feet. But perhaps that is just the kind of home one finds here.

The rest of the news isn’t good, of course. There isn’t much good news in the real estate market lately unless you’re a buyer. Consider this: foreclosure sales have jumped 219% and short sales have jumped 180% since last November. Non-distressed sales have fallen 43.6% for the same period. 51.4% of all sales in November were foreclosures, 18.9% were short sales and a mere 29.7% were non-distressed. Which means more than two-third of all homes sold in Lincoln were distress sales.

A fact that always puts downward pressure on prices and this November was no exception. The average sold price per square foot in Lincoln has fallen 27.4% since last November from $189.08 to $137.23.  The average sales price has fallen 27.4% - hand in hand with the average sold price per square foot - from last November’s $427,736 to rest at $311,579. Median sales price has dropped 24.3% from $379,900 to $287,500 for the same period.

Inventory is at 6 months (based on the last year of sales) and 5.3 months (based on the last 6 months of sales.)