June home sales plummet

It's getting to be a broken record - L.A. County saw a 32.5 percent plunge in June home sales from a year earlier (and things weren't so swift a year earlier). Actually, L.A.'s numbers don't look so bad next to San Bernardino County, which had a 50.1 percent drop in sales last month, and Riverside, which was down 47.2 percent (all numbers courtest of Dataquick). For all of Socal, it was the slowest June since 1993. Most of this sluggishness has been on the lower-end, which is no doubt the result of higher interest rates and a tighter lending environment (call it the subprime effect). L.A. prices, meanwhile, continue to rise; June's median price was $545,000, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier. Much of the Los Angeles action is at the high end, where demand remains strong and inventory is limited (especially in the more desired locales). San Bernardino's median price in June was down almost 6 percent.

JUNE HOME SALES
Los Angeles -32.5%
Orange -31.6%
Riverside -47.2%
San Bernardino -50.1%
San Diego -22.6%
Ventura -27.8%

JUNE MEDIAN PRICES
Los Angeles $545,000 +4.8%
Orange $645,000 +0.4%
Riverside $400,000 -5.9%
San Bernardino $365,000 0.0%
San Diego $495,500 -1.9%
Ventura $582,000 -6.9%

Source: Dataquick