California home sales, median price up in June

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MDA DataQuick’s statewide housing-sales figures track the trend we saw earlier this week in Southern California: the median price is rising as the mix of houses sold shifts away from the cheapest properties.

The California median sales price in June was $246,000, up 7% from May, but down 25% from a year ago. A total of 44,000 homes was sold in June, up 13% from May and up 26% from a year ago.

As we’ve noted before, the rising median actually means prices are falling at the higher end of the housing market. That brings sales up, and raises the median because a greater share of homes sold are more expensive properties.

In June, for instance, the share of California houses sold that had been foreclosed dropped to 46%, the first time foreclosures were below 50% since August. As the market ‘normalizes’ with foreclosures no longer dominating sales, we’ll see higher median prices, but houses priced around and above the median will more likely be seeing ongoing price declines.

-- Peter Y. Hong