Feb numbers from DataQuick

The Feb numbers from DQ are out. The sales numbers for the IE took a pretty good dive and the median price was nearly unchanged from last year. San Berdu was down 10% and Riverside was down 6.5%. That's not good considering the tax credit and low rates right now. DQ also mentions the uptick in flipping. Some of those sales can probably be backed out as those flips count as two sales. Take the flips away and the market is probably worse than the numbers indicate. In any case a that's a fairly big dive in sales numbers versus last year. The sales numbers were about the same as Jan for Riverside but San Berdu saw a 7% drop. Median price was the same in San Berdu and Rivy managed a $2K gain. Median price seems to have stabilized some what on a county wide basis for both counties.

A total of 15,359 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was virtually unchanged from 15,361 in January, and up 0.8 percent from 15,231 in February 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

The February sales average is 17,983 going back to 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. The sales distribution remains tilted toward lower-cost distressed homes, although not as steeply as most of last year.

“It’s possible the stars won’t line up this way again for many years. With prices and mortgage interest rates this low, the cost of ownership is about as low as we’ve seen it in decades,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

The median price paid for a Southland home was $275,000 last month, up 1.3 percent from $271,500 in January, and up 10.0 percent from $250,000 for February 2009.

Foreclosure resales accounted for 42.3 percent of the resale market last month, up from 42.1 percent in January, and down from 56.7 percent a year ago, which was the all-time high.

Government-insured FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, accounted for 38.5 percent of all home purchase loans in February.

Absentee buyers – mostly investors and some second-home purchasers – bought 18.9 percent of the homes sold in February. Buyers who appeared to have paid all cash – meaning there was no indication that a corresponding purchase loan was recorded – accounted for 29.3 percent of February sales. In January it was a revised 29.7 percent – an all-time high. The 22-year monthly average for Southland homes purchased with cash is 13.8 percent.

The “flipping” of homes has also trended higher over the past year. Last month the percentage of Southland homes flipped – bought and re-sold – within a three-week to six-month period was 3.4 percent, up from 1.6 percent a year ago. Last month the flipping rate varied from as little as 2.8 percent in Riverside and Ventura counties to as much as 4.1 percent in Los Angeles County.

	Sales Volume			Median Price
All homes	Feb-09	Feb-10	%Chng	Feb-09	Feb-10	%Chng
Los Angeles	4,590	5,034	9.7%	$299,000	$315,000	5.4%
Orange	1,879	1,986	5.7%	$375,000	$417,000	11.2%
Riverside	3,420	3,199	-6.5%	$190,000	$197,000	3.7%
San Bernardino	2,324	2,095	-9.9%	$153,000	$150,000	-2.0%
San Diego	2,473	2,465	-0.3%	$285,000	$322,000	13.0%
Ventura	545	580	6.4%	$327,000	$350,000	7.0%
SoCal	15,231	15,359	0.8%	$250,000	$275,000	10.0%