More strain for Socal housing market

November home sales in Southern California fell to the second-lowest level in 18 years, according to Dataquick, though the picture in L.A. and Orange counties was noticeably better than in the Inland areas. L.A. sales, in fact, were slightly higher than for the previous month (the numbers typically decline from October to November), while the median price of $325,000 was unchanged from October and down only slightly from November 2009. L.A. sales were down 11.5 percent from a year earlier; in Riverside, they were down more than 20 percent. As had been true for much of the downturn, Socal remains a bifurcated housing market, with the coastal regions experiencing limited activity and places like Riverside and San Bernardino still trying to recover from the mortgage meltdown. From the Dataquick press release:

"The great waiting game of 2010 continues. This is the year when the economy sputtered and a lot of potential home buyers opted to sit tight, especially once the government incentives dried up. Fundamentally home sales remain weak because the job market has been slow to mend and credit policies remain unusually tight," said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president. "But with sales this low, for this long, you know there are a lot of people just waiting to jump into the market once they feel the time is right. For many the key signal will be a greater sense of job security. For others the cue could be evidence that home prices have bottomed for good, or that ultra-low mortgage rates are slipping away," he said.

NOVEMBER HOME SALES (% change from November 2009)
Los Angeles 5,540 -11.5%
Orange 2,257 -10.7%
Riverside 2,977 -20.5%
San Bernardino 2,271 -17.4%
Ventura 597 -20.6%

NOVEMBER MEDIAN PRICE (% change from November 2009)
Los Angeles $325,000 -1.2%
Orange $435,000 +0.6%
Riverside $195,000 -2.5%
San Bernardino $152,000 -5.0%
Ventura $375,000 +2.7%

Source: MDA DataQuick