Could this be a trend? Home sales up in Riverside County*
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A report today by the California Assn. of Realtors says sales of existing homes were up 17.5% statewide in June from a year ago: 420,550 single-family homes were sold in June at a seasonally adjusted rate, versus 357,890 in June 2007. A big reason for the increase: bargain hunting at the lower end of the price range.
‘Sales were driven in part by larges shares of deeply discounted distressed sales in many parts of the state,’ said CAR president William E. Brown.
The counties showing the most sales strength were, not surprisingly, those hardest hit by foreclosures. Sales in Sacramento County nearly doubled, according to CAR’s seasonally unadjusted data; in Riverside County, sales jumped 75%.
This is more or less in keeping with data released last week by research firm DataQuick Information Systems. For the month of June, DataQuick reported, sales were in positive territory in the Inland Empire.
Nonetheless, by all measures prices continue to decline -- according to the Realtors, the statewide median home price declined 37.7% to $368,250 -- no doubt because all these resurgent home buyers are driving hard bargains.
*Update and clarification:
The reason the C.A.R. numbers differ from the DataQuick numbers is because C.A.R. uses seasonally adjusted data. From its report today:
The statewide sales figures represents what the total number of homes sold during 2008 would be if sales maintained the June pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
Posted by Annette Haddad
Question? Comments? Email: annette.haddad@latimes.com