Local Residential Resales Down 7% From Last Year : Housing: Condominium sales tumbled 33%, accounting for much of the drop. Detached single-family home sales are flat.
Despite a purported upturn in consumers’ confidence about the economy, resales of existing local housing in January fell 7% from a year earlier, with nearly all of the decline stemming from a sharp drop in condominium sales, the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors said Monday.
Sales of detached single-family properties were nearly flat, with 492 houses changing hands compared with 494 a year ago, the board reported. But condominium sales tumbled 33%, to 92 from 137. As a result, combined sales of residential housing last month fell to 584 from 631 in January, 1992.
Single-family sales last month also fell 31% from the 713 units sold in December, but seasonal factors such as the Christmas holidays and consumers year-end tax strategies often skew the results. The January condo sales were off 28% from the 128 units sold the previous month.
The January declines underscored how major segments of the Southern California economy remain in the doldrums despite signs of economic renewal elsewhere around the nation.
Local housing sales, which tumbled 13% in 1992 for their fourth straight annual decline, are still soft even though consumer confidence about the economy is reported improving, and despite continued low, single-digit mortgage interest rates.
(The stockpile of unsold but listed properties totaled 11,409 in January, down only 5% from 12,032 a year earlier and virtually unchanged from the prior month.)
But the low mortgage rates and softness in local housing prices are a key reason why condominium sales are especially hurting. Those trends mean that many first-time buyers, who previously might have bought a condo, are now able to afford single-family houses.
“Condo sales bolstered the market during the worst of the recession and now are falling off,” said Lon Adams, president of the Valley Board of Realtors.
And even though sales were not robust last month, the latest data from the board indicates that sellers are becoming more willing to lower their asking prices to make a sale.
In January, the average resale price of a single-family house in the Valley was $256,500, a 14% drop from $298,300 a year ago. The median resale price was $213,000, down 5% from $225,000 a year earlier. (The median means half the houses sold for more than $213,000, and half sold for less.)
The average resale price for condos, meanwhile, was $139,500 in January, down 10% from $155,200 a year ago. The median condo price was $140,000, down 6% from $149,000 in January, 1992.
The Valley realty board, the largest in California, reports housing sales by its 7,900 members in the area from North Hollywood to Calabasas. Its figures do not include sales of most new residences.
January Valley House Sales North West: Avg. Price: $312,600 Sales: 20 North Central: Avg. Price: $253,600 Sales: 92 North East: Avg. Price: $157,700 Sales: 84 South West: Avg. Price: $317,300 Sales: 142 South Central: Avg. Price: $260,600 Sales: 54 South East: Avg. Price: $242,400 Sales: 100
