SoCal Home Sales Surge in April on Low-End Bargains
ome sales surged 22 percent in Southern California in April compared with March, as bargain-hunters bought lower-end homes in areas hardest hit by foreclosures, a research firm said Monday.
Still, sales were down 19 percent from April 2007, marking the weakest April tally since 1995, DataQuick Information Systems said.
In addition, the region's median home price fell 24 percent from a year earlier to $385,000.
The month-to-month sales increase in the six-county region was well above the average gain of only 1.2 percent seen from March to April since DataQuick began keeping statistics in 1988.
''Quite a few more buyers stepped off the sidelines last month to snap up homes at substantial discounts relative to the market's short-lived peak,'' DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said.
Sales of new and resale homes and condos reached 15,615 in April, up from 12,808 in March and the highest monthly total in Southern California since August, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
Sales were down, however, from 19,269 in April 2007, marking the weakest April tally since 1995, DataQuick said.
Homes under $500,000 accounted for two-thirds of the monthly sales gain in the region that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties, DataQuick said.
Riverside County, which the firm calls the ''epicenter'' of foreclosures and price declines in Southern California, posted the region's only annual sales increase _ 6.7 percent, its first in two years.
Foreclosures drew buyers. Nearly 38 percent of homes resold in April in the region were in foreclosure at some point during the previous 12 months, compared with 36 percent in March and only 5 percent in April 2007, DataQuick said.
In Riverside County, foreclosures accounted for 53 percent of such sales.
April's median price of $385,000 in the region was unchanged from March, the first time in eight months the price didn't fall from the previous month.
The median price peaked in April 2007 at $505,000, a figure reached several times last spring and summer.
It's premature to say that April's numbers signaled a potential housing rebound in California, one of the nation's hottest markets during the boom, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.
Uncertainties include whether the economy gets stuck in a recession, whether the credit crunch persists, and if foreclosures continue to rise, he said.
''I think we're a ways from seeing much of a rebound in home values,'' he said. ''When you put on a super sale, people show up and buy.''
Sales were strongest in areas hit by steep price declines and foreclosures. Along with Riverside County, the areas included Chula Vista in San Diego County, Lancaster in Los Angeles County, Anaheim and Lake Forest in Orange County and Victorville in San Bernardino County.
DataQuick said it was still looking for a sales rebound in midpriced and higher-end markets along the coast.
The availability of large loans have fallen sharply in the past eight months, causing prices to fall, DataQuick said.
Loans above $417,000 financed only 15 percent of Southern California home sales in April, down from nearly 40 percent last August.
05/19/2008 05:04 PM
By ELLIOT SPAGAT AP Business Writer
SAN DIEGO
ome sales surged 22 percent in Southern California in April compared with March, as bargain-hunters bought lower-end homes in areas hardest hit by foreclosures, a research firm said Monday.
