State’s Major League Prices
The historic batting lineup in the nation’s resale housing industry has long been topped by strictly major league players and numbers, mostly from California.
Baseball’s lore includes a 1927 New York Yankee batting order that included Earl Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri, a fearsome combination which made up most of what became known as Murderers’ Row.
Earlier this week, a report from the National Assn. of Realtors provided comparable reminders of the potency of California players in the national housing market, setting a clear dominance in the field.
It reported that the median prices of existing homes in the Golden State are still at the top, with the Orange County, San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles market areas in the top four.
Our offshore neighbor, Honolulu, ranked third in the survey, while San Diego was eighth.
Such accountings of prices painfully remind would-be buyers of the high cost of buying a home today, either new or existing, and their frustrations at their inability to afford the median or average-priced dwelling. But the figures also show the continuing appreciation of values throughout the state--particularly our end of it.
As reported by the NAR, the median-priced, single-family Orange County dwelling costs $231,200. Its counterparts in San Francisco, Honolulu and Los Angeles market areas are priced at $228,100, $225,000 and $191,200, respectively. The survey included 62 metropolitan areas during the last quarter of 1988.
The new-home building sector of the housing industry also continues to show California topping the national field in 1988 for issuance of building permits for new homes.
The U.S. Housing Markets report places the Riverside-San Bernardino area as the “ busiest” in the nation--52,151 permits--with Los Angeles, second, San Diego, seventh and San Francisco, 10th. The Riverside-San Bernardino market also ranked second to Las Vegas as the “hottest” selling market, based not on temperatures but on total permits issued per 1,000 population.
Las Vegas ranked first among cities with the biggest gains last year, recording 26,438 permits issued for a 112% increase over the previous year, with the two Inland Empire counties ranking second, with a hefty 32.8% gain.
The present pace of activity may start to cool down now as the industry enters another of its inevitable down cycles, triggered by the recent increase in the prime loan rate to 11%.
(This section has been an excellent barometer of such cycles through the last two decades, expanding and contracting in size with the condition of the real estate marketplace. On April 26, 1981, during the recession, with its very high interest rates, the section was in two parts with 64 pages--a press run record. Inventory was high then and advertising was a must. When sales are as good as they have been for the past few years, advertisers feel that advertising is not as essential in good times.)
Our smog, traffic gridlock, earthquakes, fires, floods, high rate of violent crime and fraud--and now even sharks lurking along the coastline--haven’t stopped any one from moving west to date.
Could it be that despite our envied life style and climate and our diverse and robust economy, the ballooning prices for homes here may eventually remove the welcome mat?
