Home Prices Reach 3-Year High as Sales Keep Rising
Pushing local home prices to their highest level in more than three years, increasingly prosperous--and confident--consumers continued to snap up houses in Ventura County last month.
Led by an especially strong market in Thousand Oaks, countywide home sales totaled 986 in April, up from 962 in April 1996.
The increase continued a sales surge that began a year and a half ago, when the county’s housing market began to emerge from the gloomy recession years.
The healthy sales pace was coupled with a 6.8% increase in prices that brought the county’s median home price to $203,000--the highest level since the $208,000 figure recorded in October 1993, according to a report released Monday by real estate research firm Acxiom/DataQuick.
The strong housing figures show that the broad-based economic recovery has bolstered consumer confidence, Acxiom/DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said.
“There’s a clear conclusion to be drawn here,” Karevoll said, noting that the price rise resulted largely from purchases of homes in the $300,000 range. “People are more comfortable with their finances, thinking that they’ll be working long term and they can spend money on things they don’t absolutely have to have. That’s what these expensive homes have--extras.”
The more affluent cities of eastern Ventura County led last month’s strong real estate market performance, accounting for the majority of sales and registering the highest prices.
Thousand Oaks topped the county with 243 home sales, a sharp increase from 199 in April 1996. In the southern portion of the city covered by the 91361 ZIP code, the median home price was $333,000.
Wilma Haeuser of ReMax Professional Realtors in Thousand Oaks said one of her firm’s biggest April transactions was the sale of a $900,000 North Ranch estate to a corporate executive.
The expanding economy, along with Thousand Oaks’ reputation as a safe city with good schools, is drawing home buyers to the area, she said.
“They like the weather we have, the low crime rate, “ Haeuser said. “It sure looks like it’s turning around.”
In Simi Valley, 159 homes were sold last month, compared with 162 during the same month in 1996. In Moorpark, 75 homes were sold, 11 more than the previous April.
The west county’s housing market was softer, although Camarillo enjoyed increased sales and rising home prices.
Home sales slowed in Ventura, declining to 116 from 129. In Oxnard, sales fell from 165 to 149.
Judy Hoag of Paris and Associates Real Estate in Ventura said home sales in that city have been held down by the lack of new development.
“We really haven’t had any new housing come online,” she said. “It seems everything you get is resales.”
Hoag also believes many Ventura families are holding on to their homes until the market grows even stronger and they can recover more of the value lost during the real estate downturn.
To be sure, the county’s residential real estate market has a way to go before it recovers fully from the slide. The median home price last month was more than $20,000 lower than the typical Ventura County home price registered during the late 1980s, Karevoll said.
Cal Lutheran University economist Ali Akbari said that in the modern economy, factors other than home prices and mortgage rates affect the market. Workers had their confidence rattled during the last recession by harsh economic shifts such as corporate downsizing that made the slump especially severe, he said.
But Akbari said April’s housing numbers confirm that the county’s housing market has entered a “consolidation phase,” in which foreclosures are dropping and home values are once again rising.
“Definitely, the real estate crisis is over,” he said.
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Ventura County House Sales
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April, 1996 April, 1997 Number Average Number Average City/ZIP code of sales price of sales price CAMARILLO 93010 72 $173,000 82 $229,000 93012 50 $211,000 58 $218,000 FILLMORE 93015 6 $136,000 6 $151,000 MOORPARK 93021 64 $241,000 75 $207,000 OAK PARK 91301 29 $212,000 28 $236,000 OAK VIEW 93022 7 $285,000 4 --- OJAI 93023 26 $195,000 24 $272,000 OXNARD 93030 69 $191,000 66 $170,000 93033 48 $130,000 41 $122,000 93035 48 $178,000 42 $175,000 PORT HUENEME 93041 30 $112,000 26 $106,000 SANTA PAULA 93060 23 $131,000 16 $138,000 SIMI VALLEY 93063 90 $173,000 81 $178,000 93065 72 $164,000 78 $188,000 THOUSAND OAKS 91320 55 $223,000 77 $205,000 91360 49 $229,000 61 $223,000 91361 18 $279,000 17 $333,000 91362 77 $266,000 88 $289,000 VENTURA 93001 35 $156,000 30 $147,000 93003 46 $171,000 48 $186,000 93004 48 $181,000 38 $178,000 COUNTYWIDE 962 $190,000 986 $203,000
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Source: Acxiom/DataQuick Information Systems
