Home Sales Hit Highest Point in Nearly 3 Years
Home sales in Southern California surged to their highest level in almost three years last month as buyers scrambled to take advantage of low mortgage interest rates, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 19,557 new and used houses and condos were sold in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties in March. That was up 50.5% from 12,998 in February and up 38.6% from 14,106 in March a year ago, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems.
March was the eighth month in a row that year-over-year sales were up, and it was the strongest single sales month since May, 1991, when 20,531 Southland homes were sold.
“The upturn in mortgage interest rates pushed a lot of potential buyers into the market,” said Donald L. Cohn, Dataquick CEO. “Additionally, prices for many types of homes are the lowest they have been in five years.”
The decline in prices seems to be leveling off in certain areas and for certain types of homes, Dataquick analysts said. In San Diego County, year-over-year prices moved up for the fourth month in a row. The move-up home category is also seeing level price trends.
Dataquick monitors all real estate purchasing and financing activity in California and other states and provides information to lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers include all so-called arms-length transactions. Sales to immediate family members and transfers of ownership to trusts are not counted.
March Home, Condo Sales and Prices Chart compares sales of homes and condos for March, 1993, and March, 1994, with their median prices and percent of change.
Area by No. Sold No. Sold Pct. Median Median Pct. County 3/93 3/94 Chg 3/93 3/94 Chg Los Angeles 5,737 7,526 31.2% $178 $171 -4.0% Orange 2,178 3,324 52.6% $202 $201 -0.4% San Diego 2,526 3,394 34.4% $164 $169 2.7% Riverside 1,496 2,279 52.3% $135 $131 -3.4% San Bernardino 1,551 2,048 32.0% $128 $128 -0.6% Ventura 618 986 59.5% $202 $186 -8.0% So. California 14,106 19,557 38.6% $170 $167 -2.0%
