Socal housing market going nowhere fast

Yes, even in April, the time when folks are normally supposed to start buying and selling. L.A. County homes sales fell almost 10 percent from a year earlier and 8.5 percent from March, according to Dataquick. The median price of $320,000 was down almost 3 percent from a year earlier and unchanged from March. The housing market has been more or less treading water for many months, and there's little sign of a breakthrough. Just too much skittishness among potential buyers and too little motivation among potential sellers. And of course there are all those foreclosures to deal with. Thing of it is the local economy (apart from home sales) has been improving. From press release:

"The market's in a rut at a time it would normally be building momentum. Two of the more likely forces that could get it going again are more robust job growth and home price reductions. At the moment, the latter appears to be the more likely short-term catalyst," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "Sales have been far below average for quite a while and there's little doubt there's pent-up demand out there. But too many people still aren't in the mood or in a position to buy. They might be concerned about prices falling more, or can't qualify for a loan. They might owe more on their homes than they're worth and can't move up. Others were foreclosed on in recent years and can't re-enter the market yet."

APRIL HOME SALES (% change from April 2010)
Los Angeles 6,025 -9.9%
Orange 2,485 -6.9%
Riverside 3,470 -13.7%
San Bernardino 2,403 -12.4%
Ventura 684 -13.3%

APRIL MEDIAN PRICE (% change from April 2010)
Los Angeles $320,000 -2.9%
Orange $430,000 0.0%
Riverside $190,000 -5.0%
San Bernardino $147,500 -1.7%
Ventura $357,500 -6.4%

Source: DataQuick, DQNews.com