In the year just ended, 31 homes in Lakes at Boca Raton changed hands. That’s more than any other year since 2003.

12 of those 31 were distress sales – nine were bank-owned sales of foreclosed properties and three were short sales.

The 19 non-distress sales sold for an average price of $121 per square foot under air.

In 2010, there were also 19 non-distress sales in the Lakes. The average sale price of such properties last year was $139 per square foot under air.

The other five sales in 2010 were foreclosures (two) and short sales (3), for an overall total of 24 homes sold.

The above figures mean that sales of non-distress homes in 2011 dropped about 13% versus the sales of similar homes in 2010. That’s well above the average decrease for 2011 in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County as a whole, according to several sources.

At least part of the reason for the above average price decline is probably due to the sharp increase in foreclosure sales in the Lakes in 2011. There were nine such sales in 2011 versus only two in 2010 – a jump of 4 ½ times. Generally, the more foreclosure sales in a given area, the greater the impact on property values of all homes. Another reason is that there were five high-end sales in Cape Sable in 2010 versus only one in 2011.

As for 2012, we started the year with 11 properties for sale – the lowest such number in some time with 1.7% of all 653 homes in Lakes at Boca Raton currently on the market. And none of them are foreclosure sales! If that keeps up, sale prices should rise in 2012.