County Home Sales Rise 21.5% From May ’95
Joining hundreds of others across the county, second-grade teacher Norma Garibay helped spur May’s strong home sales by buying a piece of the American dream.
Nudged from a “just looking” into a buying mode by rising interest rates, the 27-year-old Garibay and her husband purchased a $229,950, six-bedroom home in a new Oxnard subdivision.
“I think that it was the fact that we found the right house at the right time in the right place,” Garibay said. “Everything kind of meshed together.”
With 921 homes sold in May, home sales in Ventura County rose 21.5% compared with the same month in depressed 1995, continuing a rise that began in January, according to a report released Friday by TRW-Redi Property Data.
And in a sign that the approaching summer could mean still more good news for local real estate agents, 25 more homes were sold in May compared with the previous month, marking a 2.8% increase.
“My phone kept ringing from the moment I walked in the door, with this buyer, that buyer calling,” said Lisa Montanio, an agent with Standard Pacific, of her eight May sales in Oxnard’s new Village of Santa Rosa subdivision.
“It is almost like it used to be when you had two or three people interested in the same house,” she said. “Who is going to qualify first?”
Montanio attributes the rise to what she believes is a slew of buyers who put off the big purchase but are now deciding the time is right.
“The kids are getting out of school, and the heat is rising in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley,” Montanio said. “People are realizing this is God’s country.”
From the first of January through the end of May, 3,843 homes were sold countywide, up 1.8% from 1994, when the housing market first showed signs of recovery.
Mark Schniepp, a UC Santa Barbara economist, cheered the latest report, saying it bodes well for Ventura County.
“I think the news suggests that the home sales recovery is not only continuing, but also gaining strength,” Schniepp said, adding that he believes that job growth in the area has helped fuel the home market.
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But TRW analyst Nima Nattagh cautioned that the figures are impressive only when compared with last year, which was a slump period.
Nattagh said sales for the first five months of 1996 are actually 36% lower than the same period in 1988, when the market peaked.
“Today’s numbers are looking good relative to last year,” Nattagh said. “But if you put it in a larger context, we are basically back to where we were in 1994.”
The figures still heartened local real estate agents, especially in Thousand Oaks, which led Ventura County in May sales with 243 homes purchased.
“I think there is a more positive feeling about the economy,” said Chuck Leko, owner of Century 21 Adobe Realty, which sold about 20 homes in the Conejo Valley.
But Leko said the rise in interest rates--from about 7.5% in February to 8.25% now--also turned shoppers into home buyers.
“When interest rates go up, buyers want to buy something before the rate goes too high,” he said.
Remaining fairly steady so far, though, are home prices. Countywide, homes sold for an average price of $230,250, an increase of $1,149 over last year.
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Ventura County House Sales
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May, 1995 May, 1996 Number Average Number Average City/ZIP code of sales price of sales price CAMARILLO 93010 54 $217,125 65 $246,936 93012 28 $243,630 33 $271,955 93066 NA NA 1 $558,500 FILLMORE 93015 8 $176,438 15 $149,432 MOORPARK 93021 45 $258,556 52 $253,096 OAK PARK 91301 20 $263,800 NA NA OAK VIEW 93022 8 $164,250 6 $162,417 OJAI 93023 25 $237,300 26 $219,788 OXNARD 93030 50 $196,970 68 $180,136 93033 27 $151,120 18 $142,833 93035 29 $232,732 27 $232,519 PORT HUENEME 93041 10 $142,944 23 $154,435 SANTA PAULA 93060 13 $133,808 15 $146,900 SIMI VALLEY 91307 4 443,625 NA NA 93063 68 $179,652 80 $202,404 93064 NA NA 1 $199,000 93065 92 $204,623 82 $190,365 THOUSAND OAKS 91320 39 $250,170 68 $256,287 91360 55 $235,820 87 $252,907 91361 17 $301,969 25 $342,604 91362 49 $400,867 63 $324,390 VENTURA 93001 23 $257,452 42 $215,131 93003 39 $181,372 44 $195,302 93004 51 $225,167 26 $205,788 COUNTYWIDE *758 $229,101 921 $230,250
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Source: TRW-REDI Property Data
