Unsold Home Inventory in Sharp Drop

The mid-year 1986 supply of new unsold housing units in the six-county Southland area dropped sharply to 15,688, down 29.6% from the 22,290 unsold new units at mid-year 1985, and 26.7% from the 21,403 unsold units at year-end 1985, according to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California.

The dramatic decline was attributed to the continuing housing boom fueled by lower interest rates, according David Keily, council president.

The relative decline was greater for attached units--down 30%--compared with detached homes--down 24%--from year-end 1985, according to Michael Carney, the council’s executive director.

“Even adjusting for the non-surveyed areas in Los Angeles County--Central and West Los Angeles and the West San Gabriel Valley--the attached inventory of 7,525 is the lowest in the decade,” Carney said.

From year-end 1985, the supply of unsold housing fell in each of the six counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego), including San Bernardino County where unsold units are still slightly up from a year ago, Carney said.

The supply of unsold new housing in Orange County dropped the most, 49.1%, from 3,477 at mid-year 1985 to 1,748 at mid-year 1986. In Los Angeles County, the decline in the number of unsold new houses was 42.1% for the same period, from 4,924 to 2,851, he added.

The number of unsold single-family houses under construction fell 21% from the end of last year to the middle of this year, while completed and unsold units fell 37%, he said.