Another Look at September Sales

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Yesterday’s DataQuick report showed Southern California home sales up 65% from a year ago, but the total 20, 497 homes sold was still --apart from last September’s record low-- the worst September since 1996.

That month, 17,443 homes were sold in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Prices were firming in that fall of 1996, according to a Times story. But the article quoted a real estate agent saying many who wanted to sell their homes then weren’t doing so because they felt they could not get prices that would cover their outstanding mortgages.

The median sales price that month was $152,000, according to DataQuick. DataQuick’s records show median sales prices went up and down slightly each month after that, until 1999, when they began an eight-year climb.

Peter Y. Hong