July numbers

DQ has released the July numbers. The IE median is holding steady. I actually thought it might creep up a little since fewer low end homes are hitting the market. The sales numbers are basically the same as last months. In riverside there were only 5 more sales than last month. The sales numbers should start tapering off now that summer is over. Although with as long as some of the closings are taking we might see strong numbers through the fall. I'm still seeing lots of homes that went pending 2 or 3 months ago that haven't close yet.


Here's the report from DQ,

A total of 24,104 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties last month. That was up 3.6 percent from 23,262 in June and up 18.6 percent from 20,329 a year ago, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

July’s sales total was 8.7 percent lower than the average number sold in July – 26,410 – since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. July home sales have ranged from a low of 16,225 in July 1995 to a peak of 38,996 in 2003.

Sales have increased year-over-year for 13 consecutive months. They’ve been driven higher by increased affordability, low mortgage rates, plentiful government-insured FHA financing for first-time buyers, robust investor demand and, more recently, improved access to the “jumbo” financing used to buy more expensive homes.

Across the Southland, resales of single-family houses priced $500,000 and above rose to 20.1 percent of all existing houses sold in July, compared with a low this year of 15.0 percent in March. However, a year ago 27.2 percent of sales were for more than $500,000.

“Have prices hit bottom? While some data continue to hint at that, it remains an especially risky call to make given the uncertainty over the magnitude of future job losses and foreclosures. The recent drop in foreclosure resales, coupled with the rise in high-end sales, has helped stabilize some of the regional home price measures. But there’s still quite a bit of distress out there, and plenty of unknowns with regard to how lenders and borrowers will choose to proceed,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

“Even if we are at or near bottom,” he added, “history suggests we could bounce along that bottom for quite a while.”

	Sales	Median Price
All homes	8-Jul	9-Jul	%Chng	8-Jul	9-Jul	%Chng
Los Angeles	6,592	8,082	22.60%	$400,000	$321,000	-19.80%
Orange	2,799	3,128	11.80%	$461,000	$420,000	-8.90%
Riverside	4,116	4,699	14.20%	$260,000	$185,000	-28.80%
San Bernardino	2,521	3,549	40.80%	$230,000	$140,000	-39.10%
San Diego	3,431	3,809	11.00%	$364,000	$320,000	-12.10%
Ventura	870	837	-3.80%	$420,000	$375,000	-10.70%
SoCal	20,329	24,104	18.60%	$348,000	$268,000	-23.00%