Home Sales Plunge 32.9% in January : Real estate: The county’s slump is the state’s deepest. Experts blame the war but say victory may turn it around.

Home sales in Ventura County in January fell 32.9% from December, the steepest decline reported by any county in the state.

The slowdown in the county’s real estate market in January continued a yearlong trend, the California Assn. of Realtors reported Wednesday.

In 1990, sales of single-family residences in the county plunged 30% from the lofty levels of 1989. This, too, was the steepest drop in the state, the real estate group said.

Home sales in the county and statewide were hit by the recession and consumer concerns about the Persian Gulf crisis in both January and December, many brokers agreed.

But Ventura County, where housing prices are among the highest in California and the nation, showed a sales plunge in January that was more than 10 percentage points deeper than that experienced by any other of the state’s regions.

However, prices in the county held up relatively well in January, falling only 0.3% to a median of $233,640. This was 6.7% below January, 1990, when the county’s median-priced home sold for $250,430, the association reported.

Statewide, sales of single-family residences fell 4.3% in January and 31.1% from January, 1990. The state’s median price for a single-family residence was $192,690 in January, down 0.1% from December and 1.2% below January, 1990.

After Ventura County, the second worst sales decline in January was 22.2% in Sacramento County. Other monthly declines included 16.1% in Los Angeles County and 9.3% in Santa Barbara County.

Santa Barbara County had the state’s steepest price decline in January, 12.3%. Prices fell 3.2% in Los Angeles County last month.

The success of the United States and its allies in the war against Iraq could signal a turnaround in the housing market, said Janey Messmore, president of the Ventura Board of Realtors, which is made up mainly of brokers in and around Ventura.

Messmore predicted a more healthy market by summer but said she did not expect a boom such as that of 1988 and early 1989. “I believe people will get back to shopping for lots of things, including housing.”

Home sales should improve, she said, “because the war has helped us all appreciate the importance of the family and the other basics.”

Current home sales and prices have about bottomed out, Messmore added. “If we’re not there now, we’re close to it.”

Moreover, some brokers said home sales already have started to improve.

“It started to turn early this month,” said Joe Brown, president of Brown Realtors, which has offices in Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Westlake Village and Agoura. “The market has come back to life. February was our best month in a year.”

Brown, too, credited much of the upturn to a euphoria engendered by the Persian Gulf War.

He conceded, though, that, because of poor business in recent months, there are 1,000 fewer real estate agents in the Conejo Valley than two years ago.

Fred Drosten, president of Drosten Properties Corp. in Camarillo, said inquiries from prospective home buyers have been picking up since the start of the year. “Closings haven’t improved, but we expect them to,” he said.

Drosten also credited U.S. victories over Iraq with the improved outlook. “It’s a feel-good thing. People feel good, and that’s an important part of our economy.”

The real estate group does not include condominiums in its regional comparisons. But statewide, the median price for condominiums in January was $141,270, up 3.8% from December but down 0.2% from January, 1990. Condominium sales were off 7.1% in January from December and down 31.5% from January, 1990.