Home Sales Rise for 7th Month as Prices Stabilize

Home sales in Ventura County rose in February for the seventh month in a row, and the falling prices of recent years may finally be leveling off.

A total of 550 new and resold homes closed escrow last month--23% more than in February, 1993, according to Dataquick Information Systems. The median selling price in February was $193,000, 3% above the year-earlier figure.

“People seem to feel that both prices and interest rates have bottomed out,” says John Karevoll, a financial analyst with La Jolla-based Dataquick. “That perception, along with an improving economy, are bringing buyers into the market.”

Seventy-two new homes were sold in the county last month, twice as many as a year earlier and 16% more than in January, 1994.

Among resales, escrow closed on 390 single-family houses last month, up 19% from February, 1993, and 16% more than in January of this year. Condominium resales last month totaled 88, 6% more than a year earlier and 16% above January.