Los Angeles Times Declares a Bottom
July 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Pending Home Sales
Southern California median home sales price surged in June with sales volume reached a 30-month high. Prices increased to a new average of $265,000.
From the LA Times:
“Southern California home prices may have finally hit bottom, with median values rising last month for the first significant increase in two years, new data show.”
For the first time in 9 months fewer than half of the sales were foreclosures while the prices rose 6.4% in May.
“I think we can now say with fair degree of confidence the pace of real home price declines has slowed dramatically,” said Los Angeles economist Christopher Thornberg, who was an early predictor of the housing bubble.
“Sales in many higher-cost neighborhoods couldn’t have gotten much lower, so this recent uptick in activity should come as no surprise,” MDA 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 purchased, up from 18% in May.
Additionally only 45% of the homes sold had been foreclosed upon, DataQuick said, the lowest percentage since July 2008. Foreclosures peaked at 57% of total sales in February. Escrow closed on a total of 23,262 new and resale houses and condominiums 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 year earlier.
Los Angeles County’s median home price in June was $320,000, up from $300,000 in May….In Orange County, the median price went from $410,000 in May to $418,000 in June…The median price in San Diego County rose from $295,000 in May to $314,000 in June.
More related Positive News
OC at 2005 Demand
April 21, 2009 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate
I have been getting reports all over SoCal of multiple offers. As the article points out, someone turned on the spigot.
http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2009/04/20/demand-for-oc-homes-back-at-2005-levels/19395/
- It would take 2.97 months for buyers to gobble up all homes for sale at the current pace vs. 3.40 months two weeks vs. 6.55 months a year ago vs. 7.75 two years ago.
- Homes listed for under a million bucks have a market time of 2.34 months vs. 14.51 months for homes listed for more than $1 million.
- Just 19 days worth of O.C. foreclosures for sale!
More related Positive News
Lasner: Demand for OC Homes at 2005 Levels
December 18, 2008 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate
Orange County brokers’ home sales are generating more cash than the year before for the first time since the housing slump began in the fall of 2005, figures from the Southern California Multiple Listing Service shows.
SoCal MLS figures show that total sales dollars in the county from agent-supervised transactions had been down from the year before starting at least in January 2006.
But in September, cash generated from sales jumped nearly 22% above total revenue in September 2007. Revenue was up 45% in October and 3% in November, an analysis of MLS figures show.
Last month, transactions posted in the MLS — a sort of database of homes for sale managed by Realtors — generated $874 million, vs. $849 million in Nov. 2007. Revenue is up primarily because of increased sales, since median home prices were more than 30% lower last month. But the reversal is significant since it means that broker earnings are edging up slightly after nearly three years of declines.
Just talked to a fellow the other day in Sacramento. Tells me his office is doing 130 deals a month. All short sales.
One might look at this as a blood economy where vultures nest. However this is the market. Again from Lasner:
Foreclosed homes made up 55% of resale transactions in Southern California – 44% in Orange County and nearly seven out of every 10 sales in the Inland Empire – driving down prices to levels not seen since the spring of 2003, market-tracker MDA DataQuick reported today.
One commentor predicts 2009 as the bottom for S. Orange County. It will be an interesting year. There is a Silver lining.
