County’s 63% Rise in Home Sales Leads Southland

Ventura County’s rebounding real estate market registered the strongest month-to-month sales increase in Southern California and the second biggest gain in the state during March, the California Assn. of Realtors reported Wednesday.

Sales of existing single-family houses in the county soared 63.3% during March over February--far outdistancing a statewide increase of 4.3%. Only in the mostly rural northern wine country, where sales jumped an extraordinary 98.4%, was there a larger increase than in Ventura County, the association said.

The figures confirmed earlier reports from real estate brokers countywide who had said they were seeing a strong rebound. The resurgence follows three straight months of declining sales and, many brokers said, appears to signal an end to an 18-month slump.

Despite the dramatic comeback in March, home sales in the county were down 6.9% from March, 1990.

“It won’t keep up at this pace,” Donna O’Neil, a broker with MacElhenny, Levy & Co. in Ventura, said of the month-to-month increase. “If this kind of demand continues, prices are bound to rise, and that could narrow the affordability window for many first-time buyers.”

But for now, soft prices and low interest rates are combining to attract buyers who just a few months ago believed that they couldn’t afford a home in Ventura County’s relatively high-priced market, O’Neil said.

At a median price of $228,850 in March, single-family houses in the county were the fourth most expensive in California, according to the real estate association. Santa Clara County’s houses were the costliest, at a median of $249,570. The second- and third-highest median prices were $248,230 in the San Francisco Bay Area and $238,600 in Orange County.

Ventura County’s March median price was down 0.9% from $230,920 in February and down 4.9% from $240,650 a year ago. The March prices, however, were recorded in escrows that mostly opened in January. Prices may already be higher, some brokers said. Mortgage interest costs have stabilized in recent weeks at a fixed rate of about 9.5%.

O’Neil said that in the past several weeks she has sold a house in mid-town Ventura to a Marine reservist who recently left active duty and a condominium to a single woman in her 20s. Both buyers are former renters who bought their properties for less than $200,000.

“The sellers of the house have already made a down payment on a larger home in east Ventura,” O’Neil said. “That’s how the market comes back to life.”

O’Neil’s husband, Lee O’Neil, a broker and director of training at the Jon Douglas Co. county regional office in Ventura, said the recent stability of mortgage interest rates has persuaded many people to buy now.

“It’s not just that rates are low,” he said. “People are convinced they’re not going much lower.” He noted that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan earlier this week rejected demands that the Fed lower interest rates to help fight the recession.

Lee O’Neil said that besides selling an increased number of lower-priced homes, brokers in his office are reporting a rising demand for Oxnard and Ventura beach properties priced at $500,000 and higher.

As reported earlier this week, the strongest real estate comeback thus far has been in the east county. The county’s largest real estate board, the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors, which serves Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and nearby parts of Los Angeles County, sold 80% more homes in March than in February. The second-largest board, the Simi Valley-Moorpark Assn. of Realtors, reported a 66% month-to-month increase.

Statewide, the California Assn. of Realtors reported a much stronger comeback for condominium sales than for single-family houses. Condo sales throughout California rose 57.1% in March, the association said.

The association does not break down condo sales into individual regions, but interviews last week showed even more dramatic increases in Ventura County. The Conejo Valley board reported a 112% increase over February in that category, with gains of 135% reported in Simi Valley-Moorpark and of 100% in the city of Ventura.