Last week I wrote, “As well as can be expected,” about the Sacramento real estate market and how it performed in January.  One of the larger communities in the Sacramento area is Roseville in Placer County. 

According to the Sac Bee real estate charts there were 101 homes sold in Roseville during the first month of 2007.  This was an expected decline from the December where we have a number of transactions that are closed before year end.  The drop in activity from December to January was 19 percent.  The number of homes sold this January is the same as sold in January 2006, 101 sales. 

Taking a closer look at Roseville by using the three zip codes reveals the following:

The changes in median prices from December 2006 to January 2007 show, in zip code 95661, an increase from $400,000 to $436,000.  The 95747 area also showed a month-over-month increase of $27,000 to $457,000.  In the 95678 area the median declined $30,000 during the same period to $320,000.  The following chart details the changes from January 2006.

The median price paid per square foot was down year-over-year in all three Roseville zip codes but one area, 95661, had an increase from the previous month.  The median price paid per square foot in the 95661 area increased from $224.10 in December to a January figure of $228.49 but was still down 10.3 percent from the previous January.  In zip code area 95678 the month-over-month decline of $3.39 per square foot resulted in median of $226.24 which was 12.4 percent below what it was last January.  Finally in zip code 95747 we saw decline from December in the amount of $2.08 to $224.74 which is 11.7 percent decline from January 2006.

Seeing the level of activity drop from December to January was expected but not having an increase from January 2006 was a bit disappointing.  In looking at median prices the price per square foot is a good tool to gauge where prices are at and where they may likely go.  Although all three Roseville zip codes showed double digit percentage declines from last year the changes over the last month are less severe and in one case even had an increase.  I do believe we are starting to see prices stabilize and if inventory does not significantly spike upwards over the next few months prices should start to increase modestly.

As I said in the overall review of January, the real estate activity for the month was about all we could expect and it is still too early to determine how the year will turn out.