North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights (95815,95838) is one of the areas that’s been hardest hit by foreclosures in Sacramento.  Because of the resulting huge price drops, many bargain hunters have been out out for the past several months, pushing the number of homes sold in August to new heights.  No matter what statistic you look at for this area, it’s extreme.

Take the fact that homes have lost almost half their value in a single year.  Last August, the average sold price per square foot was $172.19, and in August of 2008, that number had fallen to $90.80 per square foot, a 47.3% drop.  By coincidence, the average home size both years was the same, so the average selling price also fell 47.3%, from $214,633 in August of 2008 to $113,181 in August of 2008.  Alarmists take note:  the median price in this area fell 54.5% in one year, from $220,000 in August of 2007 to $100,200 in August of 2008.

Of course, such a huge drop is driven by distressed sales — lots of them.  Fully 93.1% of all sales in North Sac / Del Paso Heights in August were bank foreclosures, with another 4.9% being short sales.  If you add those two numbers up, you’ll see that only 2% of all sales that closed in this area were non-distressed sales (even though non-distressed sales account for 16% of all listings).

Although inventory has just recently dipped below the six month mark in North Sacramento / Del Paso Heights, I don’t expect this to remain true for long if banks keep discounting their offerings.  In August, sales volume had more than tripled from the year before, with 102 units selling in August of 2008 versus only 29 in August of 2007.

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