County Home Sales, Prices Down Slightly
This year’s upswing in home sales and prices flattened out a bit in September, but real estate agents and analysts remained optimistic about the rebounding market.
A report released Wednesday by DataQuick Information Services showed a 1% drop in both sales and prices from September 1995.
“It’s pretty flat,” said John Karevoll, a DataQuick analyst. “But you have to remember we are comparing to relatively strong numbers in September of 1995, especially in Ventura and Orange counties.”
Despite the drop last month, homes sales for the first nine months of the year continued to significantly outpace last year’s totals. Overall, 857 homes were sold in Ventura County in September compared with 964 in August of this year and 868 in September, 1995.
So far this year, 7,983 homes have been sold in the county, up from 7,003 for the same nine-month period last year, a 14% rise.
Port Hueneme, Ojai and parts of Thousand Oaks saw increases in median home prices, while Ventura and Simi Valley experienced declines. Karevoll expects home prices to begin climbing higher.
“Prices are flat and have been now for quite a while,” Karevoll said. “I think they will start to rise about 1% to 2% yearly.” That is precisely what happened in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the recession ended ahead of Southern California, Karevoll said.
Real estate agents downplayed the significance of the September slowdown and were generally upbeat about the market.
“I found it to be a very busy month,” said Beverly Pickrell, a real estate agent with Prudential California Realty in Thousand Oaks. “People are serious about buying. They are not just going out to look. They are looking to buy now.”
In Simi Valley home sales declined only marginally, putting the brakes on a dramatic rise in the number of homes sold during August.
“I don’t think five homes is enough to call it a down trend,” said Debbie Rodgers Teasley, a district manager with Coldwell Banker Town & Country in Moorpark, whose office sells homes in Simi Valley and Moorpark. “I don’t think there is anything to show any concern about. I think we are still in the early stages of a recovery.”
After the November election and the holidays, home sales are likely to pick up again, Teasley said.
“I have said this for two years,” Teasley added. “If it’s priced right and if the property looks good, it will sell.”
In Ventura the decline in home sales was most significant in the east end of town, where several new tracts were going on the market a year ago, real estate agents said.
Last year, “there were a bunch of new tracts that were selling,” said Nancy Amorteguy, vice president and branch manager of Prudential Jon Douglas Co. The tracts--which include Citrus Hills, Beazer Homes and Windcrest--”are pretty well sold out,” she said.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Ventura County House Sales
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September, 1995 September, 1996 Number Average Number Average City/ZIP code of sales price of sales price CAMARILLO 93010 45 $204,000 39 $189,000 93012 46 $193,000 44 $220,000 FILLMORE 93015 11 $144,000 12 $131,000 MOORPARK 93021 52 $222,000 46 $226,000 OAK PARK 91301 31 $287,000 23 $250,000 OAK VIEW 93022 5 $213,000 11 $166,000 OJAI 93023 15 $180,000 28 $214,000 OXNARD 93030 69 $188,000 69 $186,000 93033 42 $131,000 33 $135,000 93035 35 $200,000 28 $173,000 PORT HUENEME 93041 19 $106,000 24 $121,000 SANTA PAULA 93060 22 $131,000 24 $127,000 SIMI VALLEY 93063 72 $165,000 69 $185,000 93065 63 $192,000 61 $173,000 THOUSAND OAKS 91320 47 $201,000 60 $215,000 91360 53 $239,000 52 $215,000 91361 24 $265,000 17 $309,000 91362 69 $293,000 76 $261,000 VENTURA 93001 19 $186,000 34 $131,000 93003 62 $172,000 58 $148,000 93004 67 $208,000 49 $192,000 COUNTYWIDE 868 $192,000 857 $190,000
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Source: DataQuick/Acxiom
