Inventory of Housing Dips in Southland : Unsold New Homes Declined by 3.2% from End of l984

The inventory of new unsold housing units in the six-county Southern California region dropped to 21,367 at the end of 1985, 4.1% below the 22,290 recorded at midyear and 3.2% under the 22,087 recorded at the end of 1984, according to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California.

While the unsold housing inventory continued its relatively gradual decline, the supply of unsold condominiums and other attached units fell 30% in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties, according to council president David R. Smith of General Telephone.

The report containing the data was released Thursday at the council’s fourth-quarter meeting at the Mayfair Hotel.

Areas Not in Survey

Michael Carney, the new executive director of the research group, cautioned that some of the decreases may be due to omissions in areas--West Los Angeles and the west San Gabriel Valley--not covered in the current survey by Comarc, formerly M.P.S.I. Americas Inc., the firm conducting the survey. The firm surveys tracts with 10 or more housing units.

In contrast to the decline in the supply of unsold condominiums and town houses, the number of new single-family houses under construction increased by 11%, to 6,611 units at year-end 1985 from 5,943 at mid-year 1985, without adjusting for the areas deleted, according to Carney.

Completed and unsold single-family units decreased to 4,096 in the six-county area, down 22% from the 5,228 units counted at mid-year 1985. The supply of attached units declined 30%, to 6,188, from the 9,507 units counted at mid-year 1985.

Even adjusting for Los Angeles County, the inventory of unsold condominiums and other attached units was the lowest in the decade, Carney said.

Riverside Supply Leads

Riverside County, with 5,097 unsold single-family and attached units at the end of 1985, had the largest inventory, followed by San Diego County, 4,911; Los Angeles County, 4,058; Orange County, 3,435; San Bernardino County, 2,637, and Ventura County, 1,238.

While reporting the lowest unsold inventory, Ventura County also had the biggest decline--36%--from the year-end 1984 total of 1,933 unsold units.

San Diego County was second, declining 12.4% from the 5,605 unsold units at year-end 1984 to the 4,911 at year-end 1985. San Bernardino County had the biggest increase--18.4%--in unsold housing units, from 2,227 at year-end 1984 to 2,637 at year-end 1985.