SoCal home prices down 27% from ’07 levels

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Housing prices in Southern California continued their record-setting decline in May, falling 27% from year-ago levels, as lenders continued to depress median prices by dumping foreclosed homes in rising numbers, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Housing prices have now rolled back to early 2004 levels, DataQuick reports.

Highlights of DataQuick’s report on May sales in the region: Overall home sales for the region fell 14.9% from year-earlier levels and fell 26.7% in Los Angeles County. The overall level of sales in May was the lowest ever measured by DataQuick, which has tracked the regional market for 20 years.

The L.A. Times’ Roger Vincent reports potential homebuyers are ‘doing their best to beat down prices, even if it means delaying the purchase of homes they truly want, agents said.’

‘Buyers are being very aggressive in the offers they are writing,’ said Lynette Williams of Re/Max in Pasadena. ‘They are hearing about foreclosures, hearing prices are dropping and feeling that if they wait long enough the seller is going to come down in price.’

Numbers: Median price pad for the Southern California region in May was $370,000, down from $385,000 in April and down 26.7% from the peak median of $505,000 reached in May 2007. The last time prices were that low was March 2004. In Los Angeles, the median price paid fell to $422,000, down $13,000 from April levels, and down 23.3% from the year-ago peak of $550,000, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosed houses made up 37.4% of the region’s home sales in May, a dramatic increase from 5.5% a year ago. In hard-hit Riverside County, 56.6% of the homes sold in May had previously been foreclosed on. “What horsepower this market can generate right now is mainly fueled by bargain shopping, especially by first-time buyers and investors in inland areas,” said Andrew LePage, an analyst for DataQuick. “Meanwhile, sales remain especially slow in most higher-end markets, with jumbo mortgages (over $417,000) making up only a slightly higher percentage of all purchase loans in May than in April. That doesn’t bode well for the high-end, where so far prices have come off their peaks but have generally held up best.”

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