Home Sales Increased In October

Southern California home sales rose unseasonably last month from September as buyers shook off gloomy financial news and took advantage of often-steep discounts.

A total of 21,532 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the six counties of Southern California in October – the highest for any month this year.

Fueled by lower prices, SoCal sales have risen on a year-over-year basis for four consecutive months, breaking a 33-month streak of annual declines.

“You could easily imagine a meaningful decline in sales last month, given the seasonal norm and the dire financial news that potential buyers had to ponder in September. But we have yet to see any big, sudden drop in the number of transactions closing escrow. It tells us there were a lot of very serious buyers in the market during late summer and early fall – buyers who consider housing a relatively good buy or investment,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

Last months increase is due to 2 things: Number 1 is the weak sales last year after the credit crunch and the subprime meltdown and number 2,  a large number of sales in the inland markets where where prices have fallen 30% or more.  With prices like these the investors and first time buyers are having a field day.

High foreclosure resale levels help explain the SoCal $300,000 median sale price in October, the lowest since it was $298,000 in April 2003. Last month’s median was 2.8 percent lower than $308,500 in September and 32.6 percent lower than $445,000 in October 2007. The October median stood 40.6 percent below the peak $505,000 median reached in spring and summer of last year.

Use of FHA-insured loans allowing a down payment of as little as 3 percent represented nearly one-third of all Southern Californias purchase loans last month, up from 2 percent a year earlier.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southern California buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,413 last month, down from $1,458 the previous month, and down from $2,115 a year ago.

 

 

 

	Sales Volume			Median Price
All homes	Oct-07	Oct-08	%Chng	Oct-07	Oct-08	%Chng
Los Angeles	4,368	6,824	56.20%	$500,000	$355,000	-29.00%
Orange	1,700	2,833	66.60%	$573,750	$420,000	-26.80%
Riverside	2,377	4,619	94.30%	$356,300	$230,000	-35.40%
San Bernardino	1,603	2,856	78.20%	$330,000	$200,000	-39.40%
San Diego	2,327	3,598	54.60%	$460,000	$323,500	-29.70%
Ventura	538	802	49.10%	$535,000	$375,000	-29.90%
SoCal	12,913	21,532	66.70%	$445,000	$300,000	-32.60%

DQ news contributed to this article