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DQNews Archived Article
California New Home Sales Down
by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
May, 2000La Jolla, CA.— Sales of newly-built homes in California saw their strongest decline in more than four years last month, the result of rising prices and rising mortgage interest rates, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 5,514 new homes were sold statewide in April. That was down 28.3 percent from 7,685 for March, and down 11.8 percent from 6,251 for April last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
The year-over-year decline was the strongest since September 1995 when sales went down 19.0 percent to 4,241 from 5,239 a year earlier.
"Is this the beginning of the end of a vigorous real estate market, or a temporary lull in activity? Probably more the latter than the former. To us it looks like sales may level off for a month or so, and then pick back up. Prices will continue to go up," said Mike Ela, DataQuick president.
The median price paid for a newly-built California home was $255,500 last month. That was down 2.1 percent from March's $261,000, which was an all-time high, and up 11.1 percent from $230,000 for April last year.
DataQuick, which was sold last month to Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers include all newly-built condos and houses.
New home sales accounted for 12.8 percent of April's overall California sales count of 43,141, which includes new and resale houses and condos. That overall sales count was down 14.2 percent from 50,286 for April last year.
New home sales remain strong in Contra Costa County, the greater Sacramento area, and have picked up in Los Angeles County. Sales are down in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Orange and San Diego counties, DataQuick reported.
Source: DataQuick Information Systems
Media Inquiries: John Karevoll (909)867-9534
Copyright © 2000 DataQuick Information Systems.
All rights reserved.
