More bounce, May numbers

Sales are up and so are prices.  Median prices crept up a few thou in the IE and sales numbers were up quite a bit.  With the low inventory numbers it's hard to imagine sales going too much higher but it could certainly affect prices. I know around here I am seeing listing prices creep up. Good homes are selling very fast and the dogs are being left to rot. The inventory is around 22K for riverside making for about a 6 month supply. However about a third of those have no hope of selling (priced too high, next to the railroad tracks, total dumps etc). So the actual sell-able inventory is probably about a 4 month supply. That's pretty low and under normal circumstances would tend do drive up prices. Not holding my breath for that to happen. Certainly not in a big way. Hopefully we are seeing a return to a more normal, stable market.

The DQnews report.

The Southland housing market continued its long, step-by-tiny-step trek back toward normalcy in May, when the median sale price rose year-over-year for the second consecutive month, reaching a 20-month high. Home sales increased across the region but the gains were highest in coastal areas, where move-up markets have picked up steam, a real estate information service reported.
The median price paid for a home in the six-county Southland rose last month to $295,000, up 1.7 percent from $290,000 in April and up 5.4 percent from $280,000 in May 2011, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.
Last month’s median was the highest since the median was $295,500 in September 2010. The year-over-year gain in the May median followed a 3.6 percent annual increase in April. Before then, the median had fallen year-over-year for 13 straight months.
The rise in the median price is the result of higher demand and two other trends. First, there’s been a significant drop in the share of transactions that are foreclosed properties, which tend to sell at a discount and be concentrated in lower-cost areas. Second, a greater portion of sales are occurring in the higher-cost coastal markets. Last month, for example, sales in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties represented about 70 percent of all activity, up from 67.6 percent a year ago.
Last month’s total Southland sales rose nearly 21 percent compared with a year ago, and activity increased across the home-price spectrum. But the gains were strongest above $300,000. The volume of transactions in lower-cost markets has been restrained by, among other things, the dwindling inventories of homes for sale, especially foreclosures.
The typical monthly mortgage payment Southland buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,100, compared with $1,096 the month before and $1,154 a year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s typical payment was 53.6 percent below the typical payment in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 62.0 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007. 

	Sales Volume			Median Price
All homes	May-11	May-12	%Chng	May-11	May-12	%Chng
Los Angeles	5,983	7,496	25.30%	$320k	$315k	-1.60%
Orange	2,664	3,279	23.10%	$425k	$435k	2.40%
Riverside	3,644	3,972	9.00%	$197k	$205k	4.10%
San Bernardino	2,323	2,702	16.30%	$150k	$158k	5.70%
San Diego	3,087	3,750	21.50%	$324k	$335k	3.20%
Ventura	693	993	43.30%	$360k	$360k	-0.10%
SoCal	18,394	22,192	20.60%	$280k	$295k	5.40%