Home sales picking up

The bottom feeders were out in force last month, with home sales throughout Socal - that's Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties - jumping 13.8 percent from a year earlier and 16.7 percent from June. L.A. County was down 3.2 percent from a year earlier, according to DataQuick, the only Socal county to show a decline in sales. Keep in mind, however, that much of the action is happening in the lower-priced inland areas. Speaking of lower-priced, July's median price in L.A. was $400,000, down almost 27 percent from a year earlier. That's a bit lower than for the overall region. "What we're looking at is a fire sale of properties in newer affordable neighborhoods that were bought or refinanced near the price peak with lousy mortgages. What we're still not seeing is this level of distress spreading to more expensive or established neighborhoods," said John Walsh, president of MDA DataQuick. Socal foreclosure resales account for 43.6 percent of all sales. Also holding back sales is the drop-off in jumbo loans; they accounted for just 15.8 percent of all sales, compared with nearly 40 percent before the credit crunch. But as we’ve said over and over, county- or statewide numbers are often not indicative of what’s happening in specific neighborhoods.

JULY HOME SALES (% change from July, 2007)
Los Angeles 6,592 -3.2%
Orange 2,799 17.1%
Riverside 4,116 48.6%
San Bernardino 2,521 25.5%
San Diego 3,431 10.5%
Ventura 870 11.0%

JULY HOME PRICES (% change from July, 2007)
Los Angeles $400,000 -26.9%
Orange $461,000 -28.0%
Riverside $260,000 -34.8%
San Bernardino $230,000 -35.2%
San Diego $364,000 -25.6%
Ventura $420,000 -27.9%

Source: MDA DataQuick, DQNews.com