Quarterly Real Estate Market Snapshot

The California Market

Home sales decreased 20.8 percent in March in California compared with the same period a year ago, as reported by the California Association of Realtors.

The decline in home sales was contributed to a number of factors, including the rising mortgage interest rates earlier this year, tighter underwriting standards of lenders as well as home buyers resistance to enter the market due to the recent news on foreclosures and subprime market fiasco.

However, despite the foreclosure uproar, the foreclosure rate in California is still low. Foreclosure notices in California currently are two-thirds below the record set in 1996 when the national and local economies were in a deep recession, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported recently.

The housing market in California is in better shape than other regions of the country due to strong economic fundamentals and low unemployment.

The San Fernando Valley Market

While prices adjusted to a more logical activity level with a modest decline, home sales activity in the San Fernando Valley came in stronger than expected for the first quarter of 2007, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors said on Monday, April 30.

“A total of 1,867 single-family homes changed owners from January 1 through the end of March,” added the association, “a decline of 13.3 percent over the same period in 2006.” While condominium sales of 753 units were 11.3 percent behind a year ago.

Despite the fact that the number of homes for sale has increased, rising 27.6 percent during the first quarter to 5,716 homes, the median home price in the San Fernando Valley averaged $606,000 during that period, down from the $607,700 level posted over the same period a year ago.

Los Angeles Real estate & City Information