Tracking firm: SoCal median home price posts first year-on-year jump since 2007
By Jacob Adelman, APTuesday, January 19, 2010
Firm: SoCal median home price rises in December
LOS ANGELES — The median home price in Southern California posted its first year-on-year gain last month since the summer of 2007, as more high-priced homes in relatively expensive neighborhoods continued to enter a market that had been dominated by lower-end sales, a tracking firm said Tuesday.
San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said the median home price in the six-county region of Southern California was $289,000 in December, up 4 percent from $278,000 in December 2008. The price also represented a roughly 1 percent bump up from November’s $285,000 median.
The sales of higher value homes, combined with a leveling off of prices in more affordable inland communities, had pulled the median out of the monthslong nosedive seen following the market’s collapse, said DataQuick president John Walsh.
“That simple shift of what’s selling and what’s not selling puts upward pressure on the median,” he said. “But we’ve also seen price floors, however temporary, form in many areas recently as the foreclosure inventory dwindled and buyers took advantage of lower prices, lower mortgage rates and tax credits.”
DataQuick also said home sales increased more than 12 percent from a year ago to more than 22,300, making for 18 consecutive months of year-on-year gains.
The largest gains were seen in high-end markets that saw few sales last year, such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Newport Beach, while more affordable inland areas that had robust 2008 sales recorded year-over-year declines last month, DataQuick said.
Foreclosures comprised nearly 40 percent of resales last month, down from almost 54 percent in December 2008, but up nearly a percent from November’s figure.
The increase marked the first month-to-month increase in foreclosed homes’ share of the resale market since February, but DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage said it was too early to say whether the uptick indicated the start of a new trend.
