Single-Family Home Sales Off 17.1% in State

Pummeled by a weak economy, the Persian Gulf crisis and declining consumer confidence, California’s housing market cooled markedly last year, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.

In 1990, 446,370 existing single-family detached homes were sold statewide, down 17.1% from the previous year, when 538,120 homes were sold.

“Last year’s sales decline was expected, considering the extremely strong housing markets that California enjoyed in 1988 and 1989--the two best years of home sales in the decade,” said Mack Powell, president of the Realtors group.

The slowdown in the state was not uniform, the association said.

The inland regions’ sales decline was not as steep as the more expensive coastal areas. And sales actually increased in the Central Valley and Northern wine country regions.

The median home price in the Central Valley jumped 17% to $113,940 last year as sales of existing single-family homes there edged up 1.9%.

In the Riverside-San Bernardino area, the median home price increased 6.4% to $132,130, but home sales in the region declined 12.6%.

The median home price in the San Francisco Bay Area slipped 0.6% to $259,290 and sales of existing single-family homes fell 21.6%.

In the Los Angeles area, the median home price dipped 1% to $212,770 as home sales declined 20.5%.

The median price of a home sold in Orange County edged up 0.3% to $242,360 in 1990. However, the region had a 21.7% drop in home sales.