CONEJO VALLEY : Home Sales Up 32% Over September, ’92

September sales of single-family homes in the Conejo Valley are up 32% compared with this time last year, according to figures released this week by the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors.

September sales of Conejo Valley single-family homes totaled 204, compared to 154 one year ago, the association reported.

The median sales price for all single-family homes was down more than $13,000 from last year--the median price for September, 1993, was $263,999, while the median price for September, 1992, was $277,173, the report stated.

The drop in the median sales price, said Gene Baird, the association’s president-elect, “is a very positive thing. It shows that more first-time home buyers are able to get in the American dream of owning their own home.”

Baird acknowledged that some buyers who bought at the market’s peak in the late 1980s and 1990 may lose some money if they now tried to sell their homes, but said they were the minority of home sellers.

Residential sales are down 16% from August, when 243 single-family homes sold in the Conejo Valley, according to the market report.

Realtors attribute the monthly drop to a seasonal fluctuation. Buyers with school-age children traditionally push home sales higher in summer months as they try to get settled in a new house before the school year begins, Baird said.

The local figures compare favorably with statewide real estate figures. The California Assn. of Realtors has not yet compiled its September sales figures, but statewide sales of single-family homes rose 10% in August over the previous year, according to the Los Angeles-based association. In the Conejo Valley, sales of single-family homes rose 81% from August, 1992, to August, 1993.