Troubled mortgages and short sales continue to keep a lid on single-family home prices here and throughout California, according to two reports released Monday.

A new Sacramento Association of Realtors survey found that the median price of single-family homes in Sacramento County and West Sacramento dropped 10 percent in 2011 from the prior year – to $165,000.

The association said last month's median home sales price of $161,000 was the lowest of any December since 2000.

As prices fell, the number of short sales rose. They were up 44 percent in December 2011 from the same time the previous year, according to the local Realtors group.

Conventional home sales increased only 21.2 percent in the same period.

In a short sale, a lender agrees to accept less than what a homeowner owes on a mortgage. The idea is to get shaky loans off the books without foreclosing. Such homes tend to sell at lower prices compared with those sold in a conventional way.

The SAR report also found the December 2011 inventory of new for-sale listings of single-family homes dropped 17.3 percent from a year ago. The combination of low inventory and too many distressed properties on the market leaves homebuyers with few choices.

"If you're a buyer out there looking ... you don't have many options but going after the short sale," said Doug Covill, SAR's outgoing president. "The banks have done a better job of getting short sales approved. But there's still a long way to go."

Covill noted that December's home sales – 1,668 closed escrows – were up 10 percent from December 2010.

"Sales are actually up, but still over 60 percent are distressed sales. That's still hurting us," he said.

Covill's successor, Realtor Patrick Lieuw, is scheduled to be installed today as SAR's 2012 president.

A second study released Monday shows that year-over-year home prices in November – both locally and in California – continue to be dogged by "distressed sales," which include short sales and sales of property repossessed by lenders.

Home prices in the combined Sacramento, Arden-Arcade and Roseville region dropped 10 percent in November compared with the same period a year ago, according to CoreLogic, a Santa Ana-based statistical analysis company. Statewide, the drop was 5.9 percent.

Nationally, CoreLogic said, home prices were down 4.3 percent.

"Distressed sales continue to put downward pressure on prices and ... must be addressed in 2012 for a housing recovery to become a reality," said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist, in a statement.

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