L.A. home prices drop

This is news. For months the median price of an L.A. County home had kept going up, despite declines in all other parts of Socal. Well, it's time to join the crowd. The October median was $500,000, down 3.8 percent from a year earlier. One possible explanation for the lower number: sales financed with loans greater than $417,000 plunged 60 percent, according to the new Dataquick report. In other words, the housing slump is reaching well into the non-subprime crowd. That may be residue from the August-September credit collapse, but it also may just be a reflection of fear (though the spigots are clearly opening up). "It's hard to buy a home when you think it might lose value, especially when you have to borrow money to do it," said Marshall Prentice, president of DataQuick. "We can expect the issues with jumbo financing to slowly resolve themselves. Meanwhile, demand is accumulating and when the market does level off, there will be a catch-up period." As for L.A. sales, the numbers are still horrendous, with a 48.3 percent decline last month compared with a year earlier. At least the Socal total was up 4.4 percent from September, which suggests that folks are a little less freaked about buying a house.

OCTOBER HOME SALES (% change from Oct. '06)
Los Angeles -48.3%
Orange -42.0%
Riverside -44.1%
San Bernardino -54.8%
San Diego -32.5%
Ventura -44.0%

OCTOBER MEDIAN PRICE (% CHANGE FROM oCT. '06)
Los Angeles $500,000 (-3.8%)
Orange $573,750 (-8.2%)
Riverside $350,000 (-15.1%)
San Bernardino $330,000 (-9.6%)
San Diego $460,000 (-6.1%)
Ventura $535,000 (-9.3%)

Source: DataQuick Information Systems, DQNews.com