Thread: O.C. Home-price gains end ‘09 near 4-year high

Home-price gains end ‘09 near 4-year high

January 19th, 2010, 9:00 am
by Jon Lansner

Orange County home pricing, as measured by DataQuick’s monthly median selling price, finished 2009 at $435,000 — the highest in 15 months and up 11.8% from a year ago, fastest appreciation since February 2006.

For Dec. 2009 Slice Price Yr. ago Sales Yr. ago
Houses $500,000 +11.2% 1,833 +17.6%
Condos $290,000 +21.5% 881 +7.4%
New $617,500 -17.4% 171 +23.9%
All O.C. $435,000 +11.8% 2,885 +9.6%

Noteworth of December’s Orange County real estate actvity …

•DataQuick’s median first topped $435,000 in December 2003.
•This most recent median is 18% above the cyclical low hit in January 2009 at $370,000 — a current bottom that was -43% below June 2007’s peak of $645,000.
•That $435,000 median is still 33% below June 2007’s peak.
•Single-family homes resell for 32% less than their peak pricing (June ‘07) while condos sell 38% below their peak in March 2006. Builder prices for new homes are 29% below their February ‘05 top.
•In this most recent period, O.C. shoppers bought 2,885 residences — that is up 9.6% vs. year-ago buying activity. (From 1997-2006, monthly sales averaged 4,304 per month.)
•December was the 17th of the last 18 months with sales gains vs. the year-ago period. That follows 33 consecutive months where sales failed to beat the previous year’s pace.

http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2010 ... igh/52591/

Jan 19, 12:41 PM EST

Firm: SoCal median home price rises in December

By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A tracking firm says the median home price in Southern California rose 4 percent last month from December 2008, its first year-on-year gain since the summer of 2007.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported Tuesday that the increase was the result of more high-priced homes in relatively expensive neighborhoods entering a market that had been dominated by lower-end sales.

Last month's median home price in the six-county region of Southern California was $289,000, up from $278,000 in December 2008 and from $285,000 November.

DataQuick also says home sales increased more than 12 percent from a year ago to more than 22,300. December's increase made for 18 consecutive months of year-on-year gains.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/ ... TE=DEFAULT

2009: record number of houses sold

by Nicole McGregor -
Jan. 19, 2010 07:05 AM
12 News Today .

The housing market is a mess everywhere but houses are selling in Maricopa County. In 2009, 93,000 houses sold. That's up 50% over 2008. And it's the third highest total for home sales in Maricopa county in the Arizona Multiple Listing Service's 28 year history.

That's good news says Bob Beemis, CEO of the Arizona Multiple Listing Service, but there's also bad news. 55% of those home sales were foreclosures. And as of now, there are about 50,000 homes in some state of foreclosure in our county. There's also the question for these so called, shadow foreclosures. The term means foreclosures that will happen sometime in the near future that aren't showing themselves yet. There's some predictions there may be another round this summer.

Meantime, where are prices? They're not good but getting better. Prices overall are down 50% since their peak in May of 2007. Still, according to Beemis' numbers, prices are slowly creeping up since April of 2008.

In 2010, Beemis believes prices will slowly continue upwards, especially in the third and fourth quarters. He also believes homes priced $200,000-400,000 will start selling more. The thinking is when foreclosures dry up rather than stump sales they could further help the recovery for those $200-400,000 priced homes. In part, due to the fact that prices will no longer be affected and dropped by the foreclosure down the street.

Right now, on average in Maricopa County, according to the MLS, it is taking 30 days for homes prices $150,000 and below to sell, over 6 months for homes over $500,000 and over $1 million could take 3 to 5 years to sell.

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/ar ... 10-CR.html

San Diego County median housing price on upswing

December report indicates stability

By Roger Showley, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

San Diego County’s median housing price rose in December for the first time in four months, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday, adding further evidence that the housing market is stabilizing after four years of declines.

With sales rising, inventories lower, interest rates attractive and buyer interest growing, the latest report suggests that the market reached bottom last year and a recovery, if not under way, will come soon.

“Home values have stopped falling and there are signs that they’re edging up from the bottom,â€