Home prices plummet

The December median price in L.A. County was a jaw-dropping $470,000, which is down 10.5 percent from a year earlier and tells you how much the local market has deteriorated in just the past few months. You may recall that for much of 2007 the L.A. median was holding up - even increasing - because the homes that were being sold skewed on the high side. Now even the high end isn’t helping. There just aren't many sales - a total of 4,430 for all of L.A. County, according to DataQuick, which is down 47.8 percent from a year earlier. "It looks like anybody who can, is waiting this thing out, said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president. "Which of course means that the activity we are seeing right now is largely stressed and atypical. Today's numbers form a lousy basis for trending and forecasting. We're in the midst of turbulence and we won't know what really has been going on until things have settled down and we can look back."

DECEMBER MEDIAN PRICES (% change from Dec. '06)
Los Angeles $470,000 (-10.5%)
Orange $565,000 (-10.3%)
Riverside $355,000 (-17.8%)
San Bernardino $315,000 (-14.9%)
San Diego $430,000 (-13.1%)
Ventura $525,250 (-11.0%)

DECEMBER SALES (% change from Dec. '06)
Los Angeles -47.8%
Orange -42.0%
Riverside -44.9%
San Bernardino -54.8%
San Diego -35.4%
Ventura -42.3%

Source: Dataquick