Housing Prices Keep Dropping as Effects of Earthquake Linger : Property: Realtors say market is still purging itself of damaged and bank-owned properties. Median sales price of $169,500 was lowest for month of March since 1987.
One year after the effects of the Northridge earthquake started to show up in San Fernando Valley housing sales statistics, the market is still struggling to recover, as prices of single-family houses tumbled again last month.
The median sales price of an existing single-family house in the Valley was $169,500, the lowest median price for the month of March since 1987, according to the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors. Last month’s sales median was down 7% from a year earlier, and $4,500 below the median price from February. The median is the price at which half the houses sold for more and half for less.
Overall, 812 houses sold last month, up 16% from the same month a year ago, and 45% above the 559 sales recorded in February. But real estate agents said the latest drop in sales prices is a sign that the market is still purging itself of quake-damaged and bank-owned properties.
Harriet Clune, manager of the Jon Douglas Co. brokerage office in Woodland Hills, said one-third of her office’s listings are properties that banks have taken over, such as when homeowners lost their jobs or simply walked away from their loans after their properties sustained costly earthquake damage. When banks foreclose on properties, they sometimes sell them at a discount to market prices to avoid maintenance and other costs.
“I felt toward the end of last year that we were at the bottom,” Clune said. “But it’s not clear we’re seeing a slowing in bank-owned properties, and I’m not seeing prices going up.”
The average sales price of a single-family house last month was $220,100, down 8% from a year earlier, and $5,200 below the average from February of this year. The Assn. of Realtors said about two-thirds of the houses purchased last month were bought for $200,000 or less.
Condominium prices also continued to fall. The median price of a condominium was $95,000 last month, down 24% from a year earlier, and $1,000 below the February median. Last month’s average price for condominiums was $106,400, down 19% from a year earlier, and $900 below the average in February.
A total of 158 condominiums were sold last month, up 42% from a year earlier, and up 48% from February. But the Assn. of Realtors said the market for condominiums could be hurt by a federal initiative that takes effect July 1, requiring condo buyers to obtain quake insurance before their loans can be purchased from local lenders by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
“The problem is that very few California insurers are willing to write earthquake insurance on single-family homes, let alone condominiums,” said Jim Link, executive vice president of the Assn. of Realtors.
The Valley realty association, the largest in California, reports housing sales by its 7,200 members from North Hollywood to Calabasas. Its figures generally do not include sales of new residences.
