Home Sales Staying on Fast Track
I n this very active housing market, borrowers keep bor rowing, sellers keep selling, while the savers, with so little return on their savings, bide their time.
In most other sections of the nation, there has been a noticeable letdown in home sales and resales, understandably, as autumn cools off the generally hot market throughout the East and Midwest. But California, particularly our end of the state, leads the pack in sales and refinancing, and overall activity is probably at its peak now.
The statewide average rate for conventional 30-year mortgage rates is at or just under 10%. Fifteen-year loans are a bit lower, at 9.61%, while adjustable mortgages are pegged at 7.94%. Those figures are beckoning first-time buyers and to homeowners wanting to refinance their mortgages downward from higher recent rates.
Meanwhile, passbook savings rates have dropped to under 5%, while other savings categories are only 1/2% higher.
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The Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank, data arm of the California Building Industry Assn., finds that the board’s 1986 annual rate prediction for new homes is more than on target.
Measured in building permits issued, total statewide housing production rose by 2.2% in September--the latest available reporting period--while single-family home building showed an increase of 14.1% to offset a 7.6% drop in multifamily unit construction. All new housing in September was put at 290,400 units, compared with 284,200 in August.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate for single-family dwellings in September was placed at 146,800 units, while the figure for the first nine months was 131,600 units. That represents an increase of 25.7% over September of 1985 when the total was 116,800.
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All things considered, J. A. Farina, president of the Sacramento-based association, expects its research board’s 1986 annual rate prediction of 282,000 housing units to be awfully close to final figures. The state construction volume already has hit the $28.4-billion mark during the first nine months; estimate for the full year is $36.5 billion.
The U. S. Housing Market report of Lomas & Nettleton, the nation’s largest independent mortgage banker, notes that California’s hottest home sale markets are in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Sacramento, with most tract homes selling at a rate of five a week, and three a week in Orange County. Nothing else in the nation comes close to that.
As for future home construction in the two-county Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino), after three quarters of the year, building permits have been issued at a 30% greater rate than all of last year.
