Market Snapshot: A “Stunning” Drop in SoCal Home Sales in May

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News item: Home sales in Southern California in May fell 34.4% from year-ago levels, and 44.1% below peak levels of 2005. Sales in L.A. County were down 31% from last year’s level. It was the weakest May for home sales since 1995, DataQuick reports.

Read the entire DataQuick press release here, or LATimes.com’s coverage here. Over at LA Biz Observed, Mark Lacter calls the decline ‘stunning.’

About prices: the median sales price for the region was $505,000, a year-over-year gain of 4.9%, and $550,000 in L.A. County, a year-over-year gain of 6.8%, but DataQuick is strongly advising the media that those numbers are misleading because lower-priced homes are not selling: ‘When adjusted for shifts in market mix (i.e. fewer lower-cost homes selling now), year-over-year price changes went negative in January and are roughly 2% below year-ago levels. The declines are in the lower half of the market, while prices are flat or even increasing in the upper half of the market.

LATimes.com on the same topic: ‘In May, higher-end homes sold better than less expensive ones. Last month, sales of homes priced $800,000 or lower plummeted 38%, while sales of homes priced above that amount saw no change from May 2006, DataQuick said.’

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Photo Credit: Reuters