You would think I would write more about El Dorado County real estate than I do.  I live here, after all, and the homes here are (on average) more expensive than they are in Sacramento County — well, if you can sell them, they are, anyway. 

Right now in El Dorado County there are thirteen months of inventory that we have to get through, though the good news is that we’ve been selling more homes recently, so you can call it 11.4 months if you want the optimistic estimate.  That’s still a lot of inventory.  Six months of inventory is the traditional demarcation that distinguishes a buyer’s market from a seller’s market.  Six months is about what we’re seeing in East Sac and Fair Oaks.  Less expensive areas in Sac County are down around four to five months. 

152 homes sold in all of El Dorado County in August, down 9% from last year’s volume of 167 units.  Average sold price per square foot fell 18.6% from year to year, from $226.19 last August to $184.21 in August of 2008.  Together with a slight size drop from year to year, the average sale price fell 24.1% from year to year, from $524,693 in August of 2007 to $398,320 in August of 2008.  The median price county-wide fell from $430,000 to $354,950, a 17.5% drop.

One thing I’ve noticed about El Dorado County as we’ve gone along is that because El Dorado County started out more pricey to begin with, and because Sacramento County’s prices fell off more sharply, the difference in price between the two areas has intensified.  In 2007, the average difference in price per square foot was $18.53.  So far this year, that average difference has risen to $44.91.  Combine this with higher gas prices making commuting less affordable and the higher number of foreclosures that buyers have to choose from in Sacramento County and I think it becomes fairly easy to account for the sluggishness of sales here.  Add in unrealistic seller expectations and the idea that there’s always tomorrow for dreams to come true and you have a the makings of a perfect storm of market sluggishness in El Dorado County.

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