Home Sales Dip 3.6% in State, 9.9% in Nation : Housing: Despite slide, figures are cheered as evidence that the California real estate market is on the rebound.

Home sales in California eased just 3.6% last month, while unusually harsh weather in other parts of the country sent sales nationwide skidding 9.9%, according to surveys released Friday by two realty groups.

Despite the slight dip, the reports provided more evidence that California has joined the rally in the nation’s housing market after the worst downturn in decades.

The California Assn. of Realtors’ report that sales dropped only slightly in February from January was cheered by local real estate experts, many of whom were worried that the Jan. 17 quake and slight increases in mortgage rates would push buyers to the sidelines.

Sales around the quake’s epicenter and across the rest of Los Angeles county dipped only 2.5% in February from January, and were up a strong 41% from February, 1993. Statewide, sales climbed 22.4% from a year ago to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 502,730.

“All those people who were saying that the earthquake was going to make the real estate market collapse have a little egg on their face right now,” said Pat Neal, president of the California realty trade group and a broker in Orange County. “It looks like we’re headed into a healthy spring home-buying season.”

The price of a typical home in the state dipped 0.7% last month, to $180,380 from $181,690 in January, the report said. The median price of a home in Los Angeles County dropped a steeper 2.6% to $184,250--a decline attributed to lower prices for homes that were severely damaged by the quake and a pickup in the sales of low-priced houses to first-time buyers.

The median price of a home in Orange County fell 1% from January to $204,740, and sales dropped 11%, the realtors said. Sales fell nearly 12% in San Diego County, but jumped 32% in Ventura County and rose 2% in the Riverside/San Bernardino area.

Analysts blamed the 9.9% month-to-month drop in nationwide sales on the unusually heavy snow that blanketed much of the Midwest and East Coast in January and February.

A slight rise in interest rates may also have hurt sales, the report by the National Assn. of Realtors said. Rates on fixed 30-year loans averaged 7.15% in February, compared to 7.07% the previous month.

Rates have continued to climb in March, but many analysts believe that the nation’s housing market will remain strong for several more months.