The Hillsborough real estate market, one of the upscale residential portions of the larger San Francisco and Bay Area housing markets, has been showing mixed signals in the first half of 2010. According to a May 26, 2010 article from the San Francisco Chronicle, “The San Francisco area had the strongest quarterly performance among metropolitan regions in a closely watched home price index released Tuesday, although other areas and national numbers showed some weakening.” The piece, written by Carolyn Said, went on to note that “The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed the San Francisco area –which it defines as the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa – up 16.2 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same quarter in 2009. Other California areas also showed recovery, with San Diego up 10.8 percent and Los Angeles up 6 percent.”

The number of Hillsborough homes for sale that were actually purchased hit a near-record low in the month of April, however. According to a May 20, 2010 blog from the Press-Democrat, “Bay Area home sales in April reached their second-lowest level in the past 15 years, according to a report released Thursday. Last month, 7,003 homes were sold in the Bay Area, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. That was down slightly from March and from April 2009, but nearly 25 percent lower than the historic average of 9,278 sales for April.” The post from Real Sonoma went on to say that “The Bay Area median price for both new and resold houses and condominiums was $370,000, compared to $380,000 in March and $304,000 in April 2009. The median price has risen for seven straight months on a year-over-year basis.”

These two contradictory signals for the Hillsborough real estate market were also reported by a May 20, 2010 article from the Contra Costa Times. This piece by Eve Mitchell went on to note that “Bay Area home sales in April were down slightly from a year ago while the median sales price rose sharply. The sales slowdown was tied to some buyers delaying escrow until May 1 to get a bigger home-buying tax break.”

Folsom, California, most famously known for its prison as sung about by country legend Johnny Cash, is an upper class neighborhood, with a median household income in 2007 estimated to be around $87,500. The Folsom real estate market, like nearly every market in the vicinity, has suffered in the past few years as it has struggled to deal with the aftershocks of the U.S. economic recession and housing market crash.

The Folsom market is still showing signs of a struggle as prices continue to slip and attempt to maintain a stable range. According to statistics compiled and maintained regularly by the Sacramento Association of Realtors, there were 40 homes sold in Folsom in the month of February this year, a decrease from 50 sales in January, and also a slight decrease from 45 sales in February of last year. Of the 40 sales, 10 were bank-owned homes, 12 were short sales and 19 were conventional sales.

The monthly inventory of Folsom homes for sale stood at 91 in February, an improvement on last year’s figure of 96 but a slip from January’s 73 homes on the market. This put the total inventory in February at 218 homes, up slightly from January’s 204 but an improvement upon figures from February 2009, when there were 245 homes on the market.

In February, the median price of a home sold in Folsom was $314,500, a sign that prices are still not stabilized in the community, as this was a drop of more than $10,000 from January’s median of $325,625 and a fall of nearly $100,000 from a year ago, when the median price was $410,000. The monthly median listing price, however, was up compared with January, to $394,900 from $380,000, though both figures are lower than a year ago’s figure, which was $427,500.

The famed Laguna Beach neighborhood in Southern California’s Orange County, notorious for being home to some of the nation’s most pricey residential real estate, has seen its sales figures and home values drop in the midst of the nation’s worst housing crisis in decades.

Though many would think residents of upscale neighborhoods like Laguna Beach immune to the effects of a recession, like foreclosures, that thought is not quite right. According to the Orange County Register, in November, there were 77 homes in the Laguna Beach real estate market in default, with nearly half, 36, valued at more than $1 million.

Real estate in Laguna Beach is languishing on the market as well, looking for buyers with lots of cash or credit. As of Nov. 30, according to the Register, the average time on the market for homes for sale in Laguna Beach was 9.69 months, up from 8.27 months just two weeks ago.

The neighborhood, too, has seen its median sales price continue to decline. The median price of a home in Laguna Beach in a three week period ending Dec. 5 $1.02 million, down by 45% from last year. However, sales volume shows signs for encouragement during that period, as the area tallied 33 homes sold, an increase of 73.7% over the same period of last year, according to the OC Register.