Housing Sales Show Slight Improvement : Property: Realty officials say the modest gains for the second straight month indicate that the sales activity slump has bottomed.
The region’s housing market, though still lackluster, improved slightly again in November as combined resales of single-family houses and condominiums edged up 2% from a year earlier, figures released Monday by the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors show.
It was the second straight monthly sales gain, which followed seven months of declines. Sales had shown a modest 3% year-to-year gain in October.
And as in October, the sales increase last month came as average prices for regional housing edged lower.
The average resale price in November for single-family houses fell 5% from a year ago, to $273,800. In October the average price was $264,200. Last month the median sales price, meanwhile, dropped 5% from a year earlier to $215,000, meaning half the houses sold for more than that amount and half sold for less. The October median price was $210,000.
Realty officials said the recent modest sales gains indicate the slump in Valley housing activity has bottomed, although a true picture of the market might not be clear until after the traditionally slow holiday season.
“The local residential real estate market does not appear to be eroding any further,” Lorrie Griffey, president of the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors, said in a statement. Jim Link, the board’s executive vice president, said realty agents “report that recent positive news on the national economy has bolstered the psychological mood of the buyers.”
Nonetheless, the local housing market continues to suffer from the weak Southern California economy and work force cutbacks, particularly in the defense and electronics industries. Indeed, California’s unemployment rate jumped to 10.1% in November--the highest level in more than nine years--even as the national rate dipped to 7.2% from 7.4%, the U. S. Labor Department said Friday.
In the Valley, last month’s residential sales gain was led by sales of single-family houses, which climbed 7% to 637 units from 597 a year earlier. The November sales slipped 1% from the prior month, when 642 units changed hands.
Condominium sales, meanwhile, reversed their 8% gain in October with a 17% drop in November, to 135 units from 162 a year earlier. Condominium activity, which had totaled 170 sales in October, has been under added pressure most of this year because the declines in prices and mortgage interest rates have made detached single-family houses more attractive to buyers who otherwise would shop for condos.
Prices of condos were relatively flat last month. The average resale price was $153,400, up 1% both from its $151,600 level in November, 1991, and from $152,000 the previous month. The median price of $146,000 last month was up 4% from $140,000 a year earlier.
The Valley realty board, the largest in California, reports housing sales by its 7,900 members in the area from Calabasas to North Hollywood. Its figures do not include sales of most new residences.
November Valley House Sales
Avg. Price Sales NORTH WEST $350,700 30 NORTH CENTRAL $262,200 90 NORTH EAST $166,500 89 SOUTH WEST $308,250 202 SOUTH CENTRAL $288,600 102 SOUTH EAST $272,300 124
