Misleading Home-Sale Report
Your July 9 article “Buyer’s Market--House Sales Drop 35%” is an all-too-familiar example of one-sided misleading reporting which fails to give readers the complete picture of Ventura County real estate market.
I was interviewed for this article. When I read it, I was shocked that every positive fact I offered had been totally disregarded.
It’s true of course that home sales in many areas of the county are slow, but there are also very active areas, and Ventura is one of them. As vice president of the Ventura Board of Realtors and chairman of the Multiple Listing Service, I offer your readers the facts about real estate sales in the city of Ventura:
1. The number of single-family home resales in Ventura during the first half of 1990 (576) exceeds every such period in history except 1987.
2. Total dollar volume of Ventura home resales in the first half of 1990 ($155 million) is not only 13% greater than the same period in 1989, but is higher than the first six months of any year ever.
3. The average closed sales price of a Ventura home (sales that have actually closed escrow) has not dropped, but instead has risen 7.6%, from $249,000 last year to $268,000 in the first half of 1990.
4. The only negative statistic for 1990 is market time. On average, it now takes 89 days from putting up the for-sale sign until the seller accepts an offer. This compares with the record low of 48 days in 1988 and a more normal 63 days last year. Clean, well-maintained fairly priced homes are selling in 60 days or less. One sold recently as the sign went up, and several have sold in less than 10 days. However, homes priced at more than 5% over closed sales prices of comparable homes may not sell at all.
The facts say there are bright spots in the county. That’s why 1990 is a rare window of opportunity for home buyers on any budget. That’s why Ventura homes are selling at the second highest rate in history.
GEORGE KITE
Ventura
Kite is chairman of the Ventura Board of Realtors multiple-listing service.
