A small community and the county seat of El Dorado County in the greater Sacramento region of the northern portion of the state, Placerville, California, is a modest, mostly middle-class community. Like other California cities, the Placerville real estate market was affected by the prolonged downturn in the U.S. economy, seeing home values shrinking, and troubled and foreclosed mortgage holders on the rise. The market still shows signs of a struggle, though some statistics are beginning to follow what could be a slowly sloping upward trend.
A quick search in early November showed a total of 258 Placerville homes for sale listed, ranging in price from as little as $65,900 on upward to as much as $5.2 million. The average listing sales price is around $407,000. At the end of the year in 2009, the median sales price for Placerville homes was $210,000. In September, the most recent month for which statistics are available via the Sacramento Bee's monthly zip code sales chart, that figure had fallen even further to $182,500, down 3.3% from last September's prices. Sales volume, too, plunged in Placerville in September, with volume down more than 40%, with just 16 homes sold over the month. The highest-priced home sold in September was a $365,000 one, and the average price per square foot in the month came out to $103, a decline annually of nearly 22%.
The numbers of foreclosures in Placerville has shown some promise, as countywide statistics show that the third quarter of 2010 saw just 504 foreclosures, versus 629 in the third quarter of 2009, a decline of about 20% on-year. According to Placer County Homes and Land realtors, at the end of August, there were 123 Placerville homes for sale, eight condos for sale and one plots of land. Of these listings, 40 were bank-owned listings and 31 were short sales, meaning the home's sales price is lower than the price the owners owe on it. Short sales and bank-owned sales thus make up more than half of homes for sale in Placerville, which suggests that those interested in finding low-priced deals in the community still have plenty of opportunities to snatch up a good find.