Recent statistics from DataQuick show that the sales volume in the Inland Empire picked up in June. San Bernardino County saw a rise of 1.1% Year-over-Year and Riverside County saw a rise of 11.8% Year-over-Year.
What is driving these sales are primarily foreclosures and dropping home prices. The median prices for the Inland Empire are about 100k less than any other nearby counties with as much as a -34.2% decline in median prices since June 2007.
...A total of 17,424 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 3.0 percent from 16,917 the previous month and down 13.6 percent from 20,166 for June a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
While last month's sales were the highest in ten months, it was still the slowest June in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988. The June average is 28,488 sales, the peak was reached in 2005 when 40,156 homes sold.
"The mortgage market turbulence is putting quite a bit of activity on hold. Policy decisions about underwriting don't really mean much if there's little or no money to lend. Even some very well-qualified households aren't getting mortgages these days, although this could all change fast if liquidity comes back," said John Walsh, DataQuick president.
The median price paid for a Southland home was $355,000 last month, down 4.1 percent from $370,000 in May and down 29.3 percent from $502,000 for June 2007. The peak of $505,000 was reached in March, April, May and July of last year.
The median has fallen because of depreciation, especially in inland markets, and because of the steep dropoff in home financing in the so-called jumbo category, which until recently was defined as loans above $417,000.
Before the credit crunch hit in August 2007, nearly 40 percent of Southland sales were financed with jumbo loans. Jumbos last month accounted for 16.3 percent of Southland sales are up from 15.7 percent in May.
Foreclosure resales continue to be a dominant factor in today's Southern California market accounting for 41.1 percent of all resales. That was up from 39.2 percent in May, and up from 7.3 percent in June a year ago. Foreclosure resales ranged from 18.9 percent in Orange County last month to 62.3 percent in Riverside County.
The cause of the up-tick, lower prices, may not be the best news, but at least the inventory is moving. Until the inventory of foreclosed homes are cleared out prices will continue to fall. I don't see this happening anytime this year.
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