Published June 13, 2012
Southern California's real estate
market got its buying season bump in May with home sales increasing more than
20 percent and the median price hitting a 20-month high, a market tracker said
Wednesday.
Sales increased in all six Southern
California counties, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.
"The market is being slowly
nursed back to health by low interest rates, a modestly improved economy and,
we suspect, a widening sense that the housing sector is at or near
bottom," DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.
Last month home sales increased 20.6
percent to 22,192 properties from 18,394 a year ago. DataQuick's count includes
new and previously owned houses and condominiums. Los Angeles County did even
better, with sales jumping 25.3 percent to 7,496 properties from 5,983 a year
ago.
Sales have now increased on a
year-over-year basis for five consecutive months with last month's gain the
biggest, DataQuick said.
May's regional median price
increased 5.4 percent to $295,000 from $280,000 a year ago. It was up 1.7
percent from $290,000 in April, DataQuick said.
Last month's median was the highest
since $295,500 in September 2010. The year-over-year gain in the May followed a
3.6 percent annual increase in April. Before then, the median had fallen
year-over-year for 13 straight months.
DataQuick attributed the price
increase to higher demand, a drop in the number of distressed property sales
and more sales in the higher-cost coastal markets.
Last month sales in San Diego,
Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties represented about 70 percent of all
sales, up from 67.6 percent a year ago.
The higher end is finally getting
some action, too. Last month sales between $300,000 and $800,000 - a range that
would include many move-up buyers - jumped 23.1 percent year-over-year. And
sales over $800,000 rose 11.8 percent from May 2011.
The report showed that in May:
The median price in Los Angeles slipped
1.6 percent to $315,000 from $320,000 a year earlier
Sales in Ventura County soared 43.3
percent to 993 from 693 a year ago. The median price fell slightly to $360,000
from $360,500.
In San Bernardino County, sales
increased 16.3 percent to 2,702 from 2,323 a year ago. The median price rose
5.7 percent to $158,500 from $150,000 a year earlier.
Distressed sales - the combination
of foreclosure resales and short sales - made up 44.8 percent of last month's
resale market. That was the lowest level since the figure was 44.4 percent in
March 2008.
Investor and cash-only home
purchases remain near record levels.
Absentee buyers - mostly investors
and some second-home purchasers - bought 27 percent of the homes sold in May.
That's down from 28.4 percent in April but up from 25.1 percent a year earlier.
Buyers paying with cash accounted
for 31.3 percent of May home sales, down from 32.2 percent the month before and
up from 29.2 percent a year earlier.
Indicators of market distress
continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains high by
historical standards but is much lower than peak levels reached in recent
years. Financing with multiple mortgages is very low, and down payment sizes
are stable, DataQuick said.
It all adds up to a market still on
the mend.
"There's still plenty of
uncertainty swirling around out there," Walsh said.
greg.wilcox@dailynews.com
818-713-3743
twitter.com/dngregwilcox
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