State’s Bargain Hunters Boost New-Home Sales to 3-Year High : Housing: Report comes on the same day Commerce Department says such sales dropped in the region.

New-home sales in California hit a three-year high in August as builders continued to slash prices and bargain-conscious buyers took increasing advantage of low mortgage rates, a real estate research firm said Thursday.

More than 6,800 new homes closed escrow in August, up from nearly 5,500 in July, an increase of almost 24%, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems. The August sales were a staggering 66% higher than in August, 1992, when sales were particularly slow because of general economic uncertainty about the looming presidential election.

This August, though, bargain hunters came “out of the woodwork,” said John Karevoll, the Dataquick analyst who compiles the monthly report. The gain followed less dramatic increases in May, June and July.

Despite the latest rise, Karevoll and most other real estate analysts do not believe California’s battered home-building industry is poised for a strong, sustained recovery, because the state’s economy remains depressed and many would-be buyers are too worried about keeping their jobs to buy new homes.

Those who are willing to buy, though, are getting everything from free appliances to price discounts of up to $50,000 and more, with fixed-rate loans now below 7%. Builders often proclaim that buying is now cheaper than renting.

Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., the state’s largest builder, said it had its best quarter in history, closing nearly 1,600 sales, compared to about 1,000 at the same time last year, according to Vice President Mark Beisswanger. The company’s stock lost 50 cents to close at $19.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

New-home sales and construction activity in California dropped steadily from 1990 through the start of this year. But sales turned upward in May and have risen ever since as prices have fallen.

The median price of a new California home fell to $161,000 in August, down $20,000 from last year and a full $50,000 off a 1990 peak of $211,000, the Dataquick report says.

Analysts say some builders have been slashing their prices to compete with price cuts of older homes, while others are reducing prices in a bid to sell before lenders foreclose on their properties.

Financial institutions that have already foreclosed are putting even more downward pressure on prices, as they seek to unload properties dragging down their profits.

Ironically, Dataquick’s report came on the same day the Commerce Department said new-home sales in the Western United States dropped 6.0% in August from July and were virtually flat with August of last year.

Unlike Dataquick, which tallies actual home sales, the government makes only estimates and then smoothes out the numbers to reflect historical ebbs and flows of sales at various times of the year, a process known as seasonal adjustment.

This year, however, the Commerce Department has had to make huge revisions to its preliminary figures because home sales have behaved so erratically. In June, for example, the department said sales in May were made at an annual rate of 571,000. After more complete data was reviewed, Commerce analysts revised estimates upward to 629,000--a 10.2% increase.

The report the Commerce Department issued Thursday says the sales rate across the nation dipped 3.1% in August from July to 616,000.