Record Southland Home Prices and Strong Sales

December 14, 2004

La Jolla,CA----Southland home prices edged up to a new peak for the ninth time this year as buyers in near-record numbers took advantage of more homes for sale and readily-available mortgage money, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 27,459 homes were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in November. That was down 2.6 percent from October's 28,189, and down 0.6 percent from 27,628 for November last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

A decline from October to November is normal for the season. Last month's sales count was the third-strongest November in DataQuick's records, behind the year-ago number, and behind November 1988 when 29,303 homes were sold.

"The numbers are stronger than most analysts expected. While sales are still shifting to lower-cost areas, even Orange County had a relatively good month. A predicted slowdown in appreciation rates hasn't kicked in yet, although we still expect that to happen in the near future," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

The median price paid for a Southern California home was $415,000 last month, another record. That was up 1.2 percent from $410,000 in October, and up 23.5 percent from $336,000 for November 2003. With the exceptions of January and July, all months this year have set price records.

DataQuick, a subsidiary of 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 typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,830 in November, up from $1,811 for the previous month, and up from $1,533 for November a year ago. The typical payment is still about 14 percent below the prior peak of $2,113 (inflation-adjusted) for April 1989.

Indicators of market distress are still largely absent. Foreclosure rates are low, down payment sizes are stable and slight increases in flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity have leveled off, DataQuick reported.

All Homes	No Sold Nov-03	No Sold Nov-04	Pct. Chg	Median Nov-03	Median Nov-04	Pct. Chg
Los Angeles	9,388	9,404	0.2%	$339K	$416K	22.7%
Orange County	3,731	3,560	-4.6%	$437K	$541K	23.8%
San Diego	4,688	4,350	-7.2%	$393K	$487K	23.9%
Riverside	5,093	4,978	-2.3%	$268K	$346K	29.1%
San Bernardino	3,425	4,065	18.7%	$211K	$284K	34.6%
Ventura	1,303	1,102	-15.4%	$403K	$507K	25.8%
So. California	27,628	27,459	-0.6%	$336K	$415K	23.5%

Source: DQNews.com

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