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Cali closures on the rise

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Source: Catherine Deshayes

Foreclosure sales are still dominating the Southern California housing market, it has been revealed.

Booming sales are forcing house and condominium prices down by as much as 23 percent according to MDA DataQuick, who also revealed that the median price dropped from $348,000 to $268,000 a year ago.

For the regions of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties the number of homes sold increased almost 19 percent in the last 12 months to 24,104.

All six counties experienced price falls. Leading the sorry pack is San Bernardino with a 39 percent drop. The median house price is now at $140,000. In Riverside it fell by 29 percent to $185,000, 20 percent to $321,000 in Los Angeles, 12 percent to $320,000 in San Diego, 11 percent to $375,000 in Ventura, and 9 percent to $420,000 in Orange.

John Walsh, Dataquick's president said: "There's still quite a bit of distress out there. Even if we are at or near bottom, history suggests we could bounce along that bottom for quite a while."

A total of 43 percent of sales were foreclosures whereas in June it was 45 percent, and during the February peak 57 percent. Homes priced at and above $500,000 made up 20 percent of transactions, compared with 15 percent in March.

A massive 47 percent drop was recorded in the July median price since its peak during spring and summer of 2007.

Source: Bloomberg