Home Prices Could Be Headed Back Up
LOS ANGELES -A tracking firm says the median home price in Southern California rose 4 percent last month from December 2008, its first year-on-year gain since the summer of 2007.
San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported Tuesday that the increase was the result of more high-priced homes in relatively expensive neighborhoods entering a market that had been dominated by lower-end sales.
Last month’s median home price in the six-county region of Southern California was $289,000, up from $278,000 in December 2008 and from $285,000 November.
DataQuick also says home sales increased more than 12 percent from a year ago to more than 22,300. December’s increase made for 18 consecutive months of year-on-year gains.
Meantime,home sales in Riverside County fell by 3.4 percent in December, compared to the same month a year ago, while prices dropped by 6.2 percent, a real estate information service reported today.
A total of 4,282 homes sold in December, down from 4,435 for December 2008, while the median price of a home in San Diego County last month was $196,000, down from $209,000 in the same month a year ago, according to La Jolla-based MDA DataQuick.
According to DataQuick, 22,328 homes were sold in the six-county Southern California region — Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties — in December, up 16.4 percent from 19,181 in November and up 12.1 percent from 19,926 in December 2008.
“Several forces have pulled the region’s media sale price out of its nose dive and given it lift,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
“We’ve seen the re-selling of foreclosed homes fall off its peak in newer lower-cost inland areas, while at the same time sales have started to pick up in some of the more established expensive areas.”
The median price of a Southern California home was $289,000 in December, up 1.4 percent from $285,000 in November and up 4 percent from $278,000 in December 2008.
