Many local experts anticipate healthy but less spectacular results in the new year.
That's chiefly because they expect local job growth, which creates much of the demand for housing here, to decelerate as the U.S. economy weakens. El Dorado County statistics have been delayed for months because of technical problems in the county assessor's office. The year's price increases come as stellar news for many capital region property owners, who watched the value of their homes plummet 30 percent or more during the recession of the early and mid-1990s. Local housing analysts say that despite the stock market's recent tumble, waning consumer confidence nationally and predictions of a possible U.S. recession in 2001, they have yet to see signs of weakness in the local housing market. However, the sales statistics are for closed escrows.