L.A. home sales slow down

Only a 12.7 percent increase in November from a year earlier, which is substantially slower than the big sales jumps of recent months. Dataquick, which is out with last month's results, says it might be due to the unusually low number of business days in November when transactions could be recorded (17 vs. 22 in October). That still seems a little weird because of the huge variance among Socal counties. Anyhoo, the median price is in L.A. County was $340,000, a 32 percent drop from a year earlier ($15,000 from October). "There’s this renewed sense that you can score a deal – something that had been missing for many years," says John Walsh, DataQuick's president. "Last month’s Southland sales weren’t great, given they were the second-lowest for any November in 16 years. But they could have been a lot worse." Foreclosure resales were responsible for 44.1 percent of the action (70.4 percent in Riverside County). From the Dataquick release:

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity has waned recently but remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity appears flat overall but is above-average in some markets.

NOVEMBER HOME SALES (% change from Nov. 2007)
Los Angeles 5,037 +12.7%
Orange 2,177 +38.9%
Riverside 3,719 +48.6%
San Bernardino 2,385 +38.7%
San Diego 2,673 +11.4%
Ventura 729 +41.3%

NOVEMBER MEDIAN PRICES (% change from Nov. 2007)
Los Angeles $340,000 -31.9%
Orange $400,000 -31.4%
Riverside $220,000 -38.3%
San Bernardino $185,250 -43.9%
San Diego $305,000 -30.7%
Ventura $355,000 -31.9%

Source: MDA DataQuick, DQNews.com