Written by ivan3411 on May 19, 2010 – 6:49 am
Last month Southern California total home sales downshifted for the first time since 2008. Median home sales price was unchanged from March, but up by a decent percentage over the same month last year, according to the report published by the Real Estate Information Service, yesterday.
The major Southern California counties including Riverside, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange county combined with a total of 20,299 new and resale homes sold last month. That indicates a decrease of 0.9 percent compared with the month prior to April that sold 20,476 units, and down one percent compared with April 2009 from 20,514 homes sold.
State’s top market analyst said, a significant number of sales that would otherwise have closed escrow in April were delayed until May as buyers tried to take advantage of new state tax credits effective May 1. In addition, those who rushed to sign a sales contract last month before the April 30 deadline for a federal home buyer tax credit would likely close escrow in May or June.
In April homes sales price was at $258,000 same with March number, and edged 15.4 percent from $247,000 in April 2009. Middle months of 2007 was the time that median reached its highest point at $505,000. The sudden drop of median from its peak was in effect of lower home values together with home buyers and investors that prefers to buy low-cost homes just like REO’s, foreclosures and short sales.
The number of foreclosure properties that have been sold last month was 36.4 percent of the total home sales last month, a 38.3 percent below over March, and down 53.5 percent the year earlier. The second month of the current year was the highest recorded foreclosure resales contribution so far at 56.7 percent
American pending house sales went up in April 2010 beyond expectations as buyers signed contracts to gain a federal tax credit. The National Association of Realtors’ measure for pending sales of used homesclimbed by 6.0% to 110.9 in April, the industry group said Wednesday. The gain was the third consecutive one. Economists queried by Dow Jones Newswires had expected pending home sales would jump in April by 5.0%. First-time home-buyers struggled to beat the April 30 deadline for the tax credit. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said sales this spring seem as strong as those last fall, before the original expiration date.