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Southern
California median home sales price surges in June
The increase
to $265,000 reflects a recent trend of higher-priced properties
taking a greater market share. Sales volume reaches a 30-month
high. See this article on the LA
Times Website
By Peter
Y. Hong
11:57 AM PDT, July 15, 2009
Southern
California's median home sales price jumped to $265,000 in
June, the first substantial increase since the housing market
collapsed, and the number of homes sold rose to its highest
level in 30 months, a San Diego real estate information service
reported today.
The median
home sales price -- the point at which half the homes sold
for more and half for less -- now appears to have stopped
a decline that began in 2007. The current price is down to
what it was seven years ago and is 48% below the peak price
of $505,000 two years ago, according to MDA DataQuick.The
median home price had hovered around $250,000 for five months
before June's 6% increase over May's $249,000 median price.
June's median, though, was down more than 26% from the same
month a year ago.
The month-over-month
increase, however, does not mean that home prices have stopped
falling. Instead, it shows more the changing mix of homes
sold, with higher-priced properties taking a greater market
share. More of those homes are selling because high-end prices
are now softening.
The market
correction has been slower for more expensive homes, which
did not suffer the rapid shock of subprime mortgage defaults
and foreclosures that hammered the housing market's lower
end. High-end sales stagnated as wealthier sellers held out
for higher prices. Now some sellers are capitulating because
they don't want to continue waiting -- or can no longer afford
to do so.
"Sales in many higher-cost neighborhoods couldn't have
gotten much lower, so this recent uptick in activity should
come as no surprise" DataQuick President John Walsh said.
"The recession and problem mortgages are fueling more
high-end distress, hence more high-end 'bargains.' "
The percentage
of homes that sold in June for more than $500,000 rose to
about 20% of all homes sold, up from 18% in May but down from
29% for the same month a year ago.
Though
lower-priced, repossessed properties have dominated home sales
this year, they did not comprise the majority of homes sold
in June. Last month, 45% of homes sold had been through foreclosure,
the lowest percentage since July 2008.
That trend
could reverse, however, if a large backlog of Southern California
homes in the foreclosure process end up being repossessed.
A state foreclosure moratorium and voluntary efforts by lenders
have slowed the rate of repossessions even as the number of
borrowers failing to make mortgage payments is on the rise.
A total
of 23,262 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in
Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and
San Diego counties last month. That was up 12% from 20,775
in May and up 29% from a revised 18,032 a year ago.
Los Angeles
County's median home price in June was $320,000, down about
23% from a year ago. The largest Southern California price
drop was in San Bernardino County, where the $140,000 median
price was off almost 42% from a year ago.
Riverside
County's June median fell 33% from a year ago to $185,000;
Orange County's median fell 11% to $418,000; Ventura County's
median fell 13% to $365,000; and San Diego County's median
fell 15% to $314,000.
The typical
monthly mortgage payment for Southern California buyers last
month was $1,193, up from $1,052 the previous month, and down
from $1,762 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments
are 46% below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the
peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 55.7% below
the current cycle's peak in July 2007.
peter.hong@latimes.com
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