Home sales in California fall a second straight month

California home sales stumbled for a second consecutive month in August and home prices slipped from July, according to data released Thursday.

The housing market’s softening reflects the expiration of a popular federal tax credit and consumer concern that the economy is weakening, experts said.

“The magnitude of the sales slowdown suggests that, among other things, many would-be buyers are holding off for further price cuts,” said John Walsh, president of MDA DataQuick, the San Diego research firm that released the data.

Sales fell 2.7% in August from July and were down 14% from August 2009, according to MDA DataQuick. The August drop followed a 20% sales plunge in July from June. A total of 34,239 new and previously owned houses and condos sold in the Golden State last month.

Prices also fell on a month-over-month basis but continued to rise compared with year-earlier levels. The median price paid for a home in California last month was $260,000, down 3% from July but up 4.4% from $249,000 in August.

California’s housing market free-fall ended in April 2009, when the median price hit $221,000, a staggering 54% drop from the peak of the housing bubble in early 2007. The increase in the median price since April 2009 has in large part reflected a drop in the number of low-cost foreclosure properties sold in cheaper inland markets, which were the hardest hit by the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Last month, foreclosures accounted for 35.9% of the resale market, up from a revised 35.2% in July, and down from 42.8% from August 2009. Foreclosures as a part of the resale market hit an all-time high at 58.5% in February 2009.

The typical monthly mortgage payment Californians committed themselves to last month was $1,077, a 59.5% drop from the most recent peak, in June 2006.

The median price for a Southland home in August dropped 2.4% from July to $288,000 and increased 4.7% from August 2009, DataQuick reported this week. Sales dropped 2.1% from July and 13.8% from August 2009.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the median home price was $385,000, a 4.2% drop from July and 6.9% above August 2009. Bay Area sales fell 1.1% in August from July and were 10.9% lower than August 2009.

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com