Southern California Housing Market Report

Published Aug 08, 2007 | RSS Feed

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The Southern California housing market is still in the midst of a correction. Home sales are at a 14 year low and median home prices are falling in Riverside, San Diego and Ventura.

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Southern California Housing Market Summary

Median prices are falling in the lower half of the market; median prices are flat in the upper half of the market.
So Cal homes are selling at the slowest pace in 14 years.
Notices of default have increased 151.2 percent in the second quarter of 2007 compared to the same quarter last year.

Southern California Median Home Prices (All Homes)

Area	Median June 06	Median June 07	% Chg
Los Angeles	$520,000	$545,000	4.8
Orange	$642,500	$645,000	0.4
Riverside	$425,000	$400,000	-5.9
San Bernardino	$365,000	$365,000	0.0
San Diego	$505,000	$495,500	-1.9
Ventura	$625,000	$582,000	-6.9

Source: DataQuick

Southern California home prices continued their downward slide in the month of June. Although the median appears to have slipped just a bit, it should be noted that the median does not reflect the average asking price for the area, which has fallen much more dramatically.

For example, in Los Angeles the average asking price has slipped 7.5 percent from last year to $529,000 according to a Housing Tracker analysis of MLS data.

Median prices reflect a slightly different trend, and are staying relatively high because there are more high-priced homes selling than low-priced homes.

Southern California Home Sales (All Homes)

Area	Sales June 06	Sales June 07	% Chg
Los Angeles	11,234	7,580	-32.5
Orange	3,862	2,641	-31.6
Riverside	6,361	3,359	-47.2
San Bernardino	4,385	2,190	-50.1
San Diego	4,533	3,510	-22.6
Ventura	1,227	886	-27.8

Source: DataQuick

Sales in June were at the slowest pace seen since 1993. There were a total of 20,166 homes sold in the So Cal area during the month of June. The typical June average is 29,041.

Homes are selling the slowest in the lower priced end of the market. The only market doing exceptionally well is the high end market. In all, sales were down 36.2 percent from June of last year.

The decline in sales is being attributed to a lack of affordability, tightening lending standards, and a drop in non-owner occupied buying activity.

Southern California Notices of Default (All Homes)

Area	NoDs Q2 06	NoDs Q2 07	% Chg
Los Angeles	4,586	10,393	126.6
Orange	1,255	2,984	137.8
Riverside	2,287	6,648	190.7
San Bernardino	1,839	5,141	179.6
San Diego	1,778	4,383	146.5
Ventura	452	1,059	134.3

Source: DataQuick

There has been a surge of foreclosure activity in the second quarter. Riverside had the most default notices, as well as the largest increase in foreclosure activity in a year over year comparison.

While many of the homeowners who received notices of default will be able to refinance, sell, or bring their payments current, 46.4 percent are expected to lose their homes to foreclosure.

Most of the loans in default were made between July 2005 and August 2006. Statewide, homeowners were an average of five months behind on their mortgage before the default process began.

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