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% |
