June Home Sales Best in 5 Years; Ventura County Is Leader

Ventura County is leading Southern California’s real estate rebound, with home sales in the county in June registering their strongest performance in the past five years.

Furthermore, home prices in the county appear to have stabilized, ending a decline that still plagues much of the Southland’s housing market.

A total of 1,270 new and used houses and condominiums were sold in Ventura County last month, according to escrow closings tracked by Dataquick Information Systems.

The figure is 50% above the number sold in June, 1993, and 26% ahead of May, 1994. It’s the 11th monthly increase in a row, Dataquick reports.

Last month’s sales were the briskest since June, 1989, notes Dataquick analyst John Karevoll. He said June home sales in Ventura County increased at nearly twice the rate of Southern California as a whole, and that Ventura’s was the highest increase in Southern California, edging out Riverside County’s 49% home sales rise in June.

In fact, Ventura County’s residential real estate market is the healthiest since the boom days of June, 1989, Karevoll reported.

The median sales price in the county last month was $200,000--2% above a year ago and 8% more than in May, 1994. Again, Ventura led the region in that category.

Most analysts expect the housing market to remain strong, though not necessarily at the current pace.

Donald L. Cohn, Dataquick’s chief executive, said stabilizing prices are convincing buyers that now is the time to make an offer. “And lenders are hungry for purchase business now that the refinance surge is over,” he added.

Clarence Bales, a broker at Century 21 Central Coast Realty in Camarillo, said sales volume at that office is up 20% for the first six months of this year compared to a year ago. He expects that level to continue the rest of the year.

“I myself have been quite fortunate,” Bales said. “I did as much business in the first half of this year as I did in all of 1993.”

So far this month, however, sales at the Century 21 office have been slow, Bales reported. “We haven’t bounced back the way we usually do after the Fourth of July weekend. But I’m sure that’s just a blip. We’ll be back on track soon.”

One factor behind the county’s housing comeback is a flattening-out of the number of lender-owned properties, suggests Dataquick’s Karevoll. “Many of the foreclosures have finally worked their way through the pipeline,” he said. “This should help stabilize prices.”

But Karevoll is less certain that the current sales pace will continue. “That depends largely on how the economy goes. It’s possible that sales could turn downward again.”