Believe it or not, it’s not all ugliness in the market. I always like to mix in the good articles to off set the countless negative articles we see and read. This is a small segment of the national market but could be precurser to the turn of the overall real estate market.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Home sales surged 22% in April in Southern California as bargain-hunters bought lower-end homes in areas hardest hit by foreclosures, a research firm said Monday.
Sales of new and resale homes and condos reached 15,615 in April, up from 12,808 in March and the highest monthly total since August, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
The monthly increase of 22% in the six-county region is well above the average gain of only 1.2% from March to April since DataQuick began keeping statistics in 1988.
Homes under $500,000 accounted for two-thirds of the monthly gain, DataQuick said. Riverside County, which the firm calls the “epicenter” of foreclosures and price declines in Southern California, posted the region’s only annual sales increase, its first in two years.
“Quite a few more buyers stepped off the sidelines last month to snap up homes at substantial discounts relative to the market’s short-lived peak,” said DataQuick President Marshall Prentice.
Foreclosures drew buyers, according to DataQuick. Nearly 38% of homes resold in April were in foreclosure at some point during the previous 12 months, compared to 36% in March and only 5% in April 2007. In Riverside County, foreclosures accounted for 53% of resale homes sold.
April’s median home price in Southern California was $385,000, down 24% from $505,000 in April 2007.
Despite the sales surge since March, April sales were down 19% from 19,269 in the same period last year, marking the weakest April tally since 1995, DataQuick said.
“We continue to look for evidence of a sales bounce in the mid-priced and higher-end markets along the coast,” Prentice said.
Posted by Carter Brown
No comments yet.