California home prices down 12% since Nov. ’06

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Good afternoon and Merry Christmas in advance. The California Association of Realtors reported Friday -- late Friday, according to commenter Cal -- that November home sales fell 36% from year-ago levels, and median sales prices fell 11.9%, also from year-ago levels. That’s a newsworthy decline -- steeper than most accounts I have seen of the California market.

CAR’s figures also show a 12% drop in median sales prices in the Los Angeles region, from a median of $590,790 last November to $520,960 in November of ’07.

More, from the CAR press release: “The large decreases in the statewide median price of the past few months have resulted from difficulties in obtaining jumbo loans, particularly in the upper and middle tiers of the market,” said CAR Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “Whether this trend will continue after the liquidity crunch has eased remains to be seen.”

One more: ‘CAR’s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in November 2007 was 15.3 months, compared with 6.4 months (revised) for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.’

Your thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: Cal