Here’s a real estate trivia question: what happens in a well established community which usually commands higher than average sales prices in real estate when the market contracts and foreclosures abound all around it? Answer: Home sellers quit selling. That’s exactly what has happened in Fair Oaks. In fact sold inventory dropped a whopping 38.7% over last October for the same time period and non-distressed sales dropped 63.6%.

Foreclosures always cause downward pressure on prices, so the 11 foreclosures that sold in October caused sale prices to drop even further. Sold price per square foot is down 17.1% over last year for the same period – from $201.32 to $166.83. Like I’ve said before, this is perhaps the most important measure in knowing price differences because the average house sold this October is 14% smaller than last October and average sale price and median sale price doesn’t tell the whole story.

However, here are the details for the curious minds: Average sales price has dropped 28.7% from last October’s high of $409,550 to rest at $291,828. Median sales price has dropped 22.2% over last October’s $405,000. It is now $315,000. Short sales have begun to poke their head through active inventory. Based on the last 12 months of sales, inventory is at 6.1 months and based on the last 6 months of sales, inventory is at 5.2 months.

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