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.