COUNTYWIDE : Home Sales Decline 20.9% for January

A traditional slump in home sales during the year-end holidays accounts for a drop in sales recorded for January in Ventura County, area realtors said Tuesday.

Ventura County home sales figures in January dropped 20.9% from December, according to numbers released last Thursday by the California Assn. of Realtors.

But January’s numbers are for closed escrow sales reflecting activity that actually took place in November, which realtors say is normally a slow month.

“People really shut down for the holidays,” said Emily Ireland, president of the Conejo Valley Board of Realtors.

December’s numbers showed a 21.3% increase in sales activity over November’s numbers, causing realtors to speculate that buyers finally were starting to take advantage of low interest rates.

“That was the last flurry of activity before the holidays,” Ireland said. “Interest rates were still low.”

Nonetheless, the county’s real estate activity is better now than it was a year ago, according to the association’s records. Compared with January, 1991, the recent figures represent a 33.1% increase in sales activity.

In the county, the median-priced home was $228,720, a 2% drop over last December’s price, and a 2.1% drop from a year ago when it was $233,640.

“That means that more people are buying lower-priced homes--not that home prices went down,” said George Kite, president of the Ventura Board of Realtors.

Kite and other realtors in the county reported that sales activity went up during January and February judging by pending sales.

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the numbers of people looking to buy a home,” Kite said. “The first week in January the interest rate was 8 1/4%, the lowest it’s been since 1974.”

Interest rates for 30-year fixed rate mortgages are now at 8 7/8%, he said.