Is the spring homebuying season heating up?

Written by
Lily Leung
9 a.m., April 17, 2012
Updated 12:39 p.m.

Last month, San Diego County saw its highest home-sale count for a March month since 2006 as it entered another spring home-buying season, Tuesday's numbers from DataQuick show.

A total of 3,237 homes were sold in March, up 19.5 percent from February and up nearly 6 percent from a year ago. Big percentage bumps are natural from February to March throughout Southern California, historical records show, but it appears this is the best March San Diego County has seen in six years, when a total of 4,367 homes were sold.

Improvement aside, sales are still far below from pre-recession levels. The current housing cycle's peak was 6,926 transactions in June 2004.

"The year is young and lots could still change," said DataQuick John Walsh in the company's latest Southern California report. "But the results from the first big sales month of 2012 suggest the market is stuck in low gear. This remains a very gradual – not to mention fragile – recovery."

Sales saw the most oomph in the markets of single-family resales and new properties, in which tallies increased almost 10 percent and 27 percent, respectively, from a year ago. However, both submarkets saw their values in March fall from a year ago. Prices for single-family resales dropped 4.2 percent to $350,000, and almost 26 percent to $392,000 in the new-home market.

Can the county keep the sales surge alive this spring?

Clemente Casillas, a real estate broker in the South Bay, said it's too early to tell and that March's surge could be a fluke. Still, historically low mortgage rates and lower-than-normal prices in certain areas could push potential buyers off the fence, he added.

"I have a listing that hadn't gotten a call in a while," said Casillas, referring to a College Area home being offered in the $200,000 range. "(Now,) I've gotten two or three offers ... The price came down."

The median price for total sales bumped up 5.1 percent from February to $320,500, but fell 1.4 percent from a year ago. Prices fared the best among condo resales: The median price last month was $220,000, up almost 14 percent from February and up 6.3 percent from a year ago. Again, despite the improvement from a year ago, condo prices in the county are still far below their peak of $400,000 in March 2006.

The consumer demand for Southern California homes in the different price ranges continues to look disparate. Sales of homes below $300,000 increased more than 2 percent from a year ago, and sales exceeding $800,000 dipped 5.6 percent during the same time frame.

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Is the spring homebuying season heating up? | UTSanDiego.com