County’s Median Resale Price of Homes Reaches $179,999, Costliest in California
The median sales price of resale homes in Orange County reached a record $179,999 in February, resuming an upward spiral that has made the county the most expensive housing market in the state, the California Assn. of Realtors reported Tuesday.
In second place at $175,592 was Ventura County. San Francisco, for years the priciest housing market in California, began slipping in late 1987 and fell to third place in February, with a median resale price of $175,459.
There are no comparable national numbers for resales of single-family detached homes, the only housing units included in the California Assn. of Realtors’ monthly price report.
But a study released in February by the U.S. League of Savings Institutions indicated that Orange County was the costliest housing market in the country. The league cited a median selling price of $175,000 for all types of single-family residences, both new and resale, in the county. The study was based on mortgages issued in the second quarter of 1987.
CAR’s February figures, based on reports from Realtor boards across the state, show that the county’s median resale price climbed 3.8% in one month.
While that represents compounded annual appreciation of 51% if prices continued to escalate at that rate, a CAR spokesman said such steep rises usually do not regularly occur.
In fact, the median resale price in the county dropped almost 3.8% in January. February’s $179,999 median barely exceeded the December price of $179,651.
Still, resale residential real estate in the county outperformed the state norm by a considerable margin. Of 11 counties and regions tracked by CAR, just three reported median price increases in February: Orange County; San Diego County, up 1.8%, and Riverside-San Bernardino counties, up 1%.
And just five of the 11 areas reported increased sales activity for the month. Orange County and Riverside-San Bernardino counties were tied in third place with sales growth of 4.4%.
Sales actually dropped considerably in several other high-priced markets. San Diego County, for example, posted a 25.1% decline in sales from January, while resales in Ventura County were off 30.8%, and the Northern California region reported a fall of 25%.
For the year ended in February, median prices increased in all 11 areas, but year-to-year sales volume was down in all but two areas: Sacramento and Riverside-San Bernardino counties.
In Orange County, February, 1988, sales were 9.5% lower than in February, 1987, the third-largest drop reported.
Because the numbers vary so widely from month to month, “you’ve really got to look at more than the one-month change to get a reasonable picture of housing prices,” said El Toro real estate agent Bill Sloan, president of the Saddleback Valley Board of Realtors.
Sloan’s board is one of several in the county that report monthly sales information to CAR.
He said he believes that the county’s status as the costliest housing market in the nation is largely the result of “a huge imbalance between supply and demand. We are in the reverse of the 1981-82 market, when we had far more supply than demand. Then, it was a buyer’s market. Now it’s a seller’s market.”
Sloan said he has not seen anything to indicate that sales are being driven by consumer fears of a greater housing shortage should voters in the unincorporated county areas approve the slow-growth initiative that will appear on the June 7 ballot.
“It is too early for that to have much impact,” he said.
A CAR spokesman said data supplied by realty boards in the county indicated that a large number of homes with four or more bedrooms sold during February. Those larger homes fetch premium prices, he said, which appears to account for the sizable boost in the median price.
And while the county posted the biggest monthly percentage jump of the 11 regions tracked by CAR, four other areas had more appreciation over the past year.
While the median price in the county rose 9.8%, from $164,000 in February, 1987, Ventura County led the list with a February median price 18% above the $148,783 reported a year earlier. Los Angeles County, with a median resale housing price of $156,653 last month, was up 16.2% from the year-earlier median of $134,821.
MEDIAN RESALE HOME PRICES BY COUNTY Price by region
Median % Change % Change County Price From Jan. From 2-87 Orange $179,999 3.8 9.8 Los Angeles $156,653 -1.6 16.2 San Francisco $175,454 -0.3 d San Diego $133,432 1.8 11.1 Sacramento $87,142 -0.8 3.9 Riverside/San Bernardino $94,840 1.0 5.2 Ventura $175,592 0.0 18.0
Based on closed escrow sales of single-family, detached homes only (no condominiums).
d--Insufficient data
Source: California Assn. of Realtors
