Southland Home Sales Up – Barely – from Year Ago, Median Price Dips Again

Let's cut straight to the chart.

	Sales Volume			Median Price
All homes	Sep-10	Sep-11	%Chng	Sep-10	Sep-11	%Chng
Los Angeles	6,070	6,185	1.90%	$340,000	$310,000	-8.80%
Orange	2,524	2,510	-0.60%	$445,000	$425,000	-4.50%
Riverside	3,292	3,303	0.30%	$200,000	$191,000	-4.50%
San Bernardino	2,454	2,295	-6.50%	$160,000	$150,000	-6.30%
San Diego	3,069	3,084	0.50%	$330,500	$315,000	-4.70%
Ventura	682	772	13.20%	$370,000	$349,000	-5.70%
SoCal	18,091	18,149	0.30%	$295,500	$280,000	-5.20%

And look at the median and higher end markets.

The focus for many buyers continues to be on the region’s most affordable resale homes, often located in areas hit hardest by distressed property sales and price declines. Compared with a year earlier, September home sales fell in the middle and upper price ranges but rose 5.6 percent in the below-$300,000 market. Sales of homes priced $300,000 to $800,000 fell 9.3 percent year-over-year, while sales over $800,000 fell 10.4 percent from September 2010.

Only sales below $300,000 median price where strong.  And look at the financing activity

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,084 last month, down from $1,101 in August and down from $1,177 in September 2010. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 53.4 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 61.9 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

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