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Still no sign of a definitive turnaround, but there's enough going on to get our attention. L.A. County home sales for April were up 8 percent compared with a year earlier, but down 3.9 percent from the previous month. At $310,000, L.A.'s median price was down 3.1 percent from April, 2011, but up a slight 1.3 percent from March. For all of Southern California, the April median price was up 3.6 percent from 2011, the first time prices rose year-over year in 16 months, according to Dataquick. Note the mixed sales and price results for different parts of the region. OC home sales were up sharply from a year ago, but in Riverside they were down significantly. That's unusual. From press release:
"The housing market continued its painfully slow crawl back toward normalcy last month. You can see it in the fading role of foreclosures, the uptick in median prices here and there, and the higher levels of sales in coastal counties," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "Of course, there are still a lot of things that make this market abnormal," he said. "Investor and cash buying are still unusually robust. The jumbo loan market has yet to recover, and the use of plain-vanilla adjustable-rate mortgages, or 'ARMs,' remains far below normal. Lots of homeowners are 'underwater,' and the market remains awash in uncertainty over the economy, home prices, and the way lenders will handle the many thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments."
APRIL HOME SALES (% change from April 2011)
Los Angeles 6,510 +8.0%
Orange 2,920 +17.5%
Riverside 3,199 -7.8%
San Bernardino 2,292 -4.6%
Ventura 804 +17.5%
APRIL MEDIAN PRICE (% change from April 2011)
Los Angeles $310,000 -3.1%
Orange $420,000 -2.3%
Riverside $200,000 +5.3%
San Bernardino $156,250 +5.9%
Ventura $360,000 +0.7%
Source: DataQuick, DQNews.com
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.