After years of falling values and a massive sell-off of foreclosed homes in the Sacramento region, it's easier now to believe real estate agents when they say the market has bottomed out.

But wait. That's the lower end, houses priced at roughly $300,000 and under, the zone of repos and bidding wars between investors and first-time buyers.

The higher end of the Sacramento-area market – say anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million or more – still has ample room to fall unless this economy surprisingly rebounds. So owners are whacking harder now on initial asking prices.

You can see that in new statistics from home search firm Trulia.com. The company says homeowners with listings in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo County have collectively reduced asking prices by $156 million since putting out for-sale signs.

About 40 percent of that markdown is from homes priced at $1 million or more. On average, these richest owners have cut their prices by $271,000 in El Dorado County, and $334,000 in Placer County.

Up in the real estate heights, it remains more expensive for buyers to get financing. The move-up buyer pool is smaller than ever as thousands at the lower- and mid-market have seen their equity shredded.

Those who can buy at higher prices are savvy and watching for capitulation, meaning "price reductions and opportunity," said Bob Bronswick, head of Coldwell Banker's residential brokerage for the Sacramento and Lake Tahoe region. For owners, it's all about what Bronswick and others in the trade call "getting a little more realistic."

Bronswick said the higher end is a little stronger than a year ago. Yet numbers from the Sacramento Association of Realtors show just 2.9 percent of October's buyers paid $500,000 or more in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. At today's pace, it would take two years to sell the houses in SAR's territory priced at $650,000 or more, said association President Charlene Singley. The market as a whole has a much smaller inventory of unsold homes – just 3.2 months worth.

This story is repeated all over California. There's a market for it still," Bronswick said of higher-end homes. "But it's a little bit softer." In a business where no one likes to be negative, and inside an economy that hasn't got its act together yet, that's probably putting it – well, softly.

Rents headed down again

While we're speaking of deflationary real estate, area apartment rents have returned to late 2006 levels. That's after a yearlong slide that continued in July, August and September, Novato-based industry tracker RealFacts reported this week.

No wonder capital apartment complexes are offering "two-bedroom blowouts" or a four-bedroom lease for the price of two bedrooms.

RealFacts pegged average third-quarter rent at $946 for 76,000 apartment units in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties. That's down from $974 a year ago. The average two-bedroom, two-bath unit goes for $1,062, said the firm.

Rents at large apartment communities are falling in tandem with higher vacancies as more people who have lost their jobs double up, live at home or rent houses from people unable to sell them.

Average monthly apartment rents and occupancy rates in capital-area cities:

• Davis: $1,354; 96.4 percent.

• Elk Grove: $1,098; 88.9 percent.

• Folsom: $1,138; 90.4 percent.

• Rancho Cordova: $814; 93.5 percent.

• Rocklin: $1,047; 93 percent.

• Roseville: $1,066; 92.9 percent.

• Sacramento: $929; 92.4 percent.

Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his blog on real estate, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.