Sales of Homes, Prices Surge in December

Sales of Ventura County homes leaped almost 20% in December and prices nearly 10% over the same time last year, as figures released Tuesday portrayed a buoyant market that has continued to exceed the expectations of delighted real estate experts.

“It’s just so good to have it back,” said Theresa Berenger, immediate past president of the Simi Valley-Moorpark Assn. of Realtors. “We would have been thrilled with a 2% to 3% increase, and now we’re seeing 5% to 6%.”

December’s strong showing capped a year when an estimated 12,051 homes sold in Ventura County, up 13% from the previous year’s rebound. Final figures are expected today.

Analysts attributed the market’s continued strength to low interest rates, a healthy economy and a realization among buyers that prices are only going to go higher.

The report, released by the La Jolla-based research firm Acxiom / DataQuick, shows that home buyers snapped up 1,081 homes in December, a 19.6% increase over the 904 sold during the same month in 1996.

Of those properties, 700 were existing homes, 190 existing condominiums and 191 new houses or condos, company analyst John Karevoll said.

Prices rose 9.6% to a median price of $216,000 from $197,000 in December 1996.

The median price means that half the homes in the county sold for more than that figure and half for less.

Karevoll said he, too, had anticipated that a summer house-buying surge would level off to a more pedestrian 10% this winter, but with prices stubbornly rising, that hasn’t happened.

“People now figure, ‘Well, I’m not going to wait for next month,’ ” said Berenger, owner of Realty Executives. “On average, you’ve got home sales occurring in about three weeks, compared to two or three months.”

In addition to rising prices for existing property, a trend toward the construction of larger homes has helped boost prices, Karevoll said.

“Builders are selling bigger houses than they were a year ago,” he said. “They are not able to build as many houses as they would like to right now because they don’t have enough lots. They’re basically running low on raw land.”

That is the case in the Conejo Valley, said Chris McClintock, past president of the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors, which includes an area that stretches between the Conejo and Calabasas grades.

December home sales in that region rose 38% over a year ago, with 310 homes sold last month.

“We are reaching a point where our next problem will be lack of inventory, which will cause a slowdown in the market,” she said.

Karevoll disagrees, noting that much of the activity is due to homeowners finally recovering from the dramatic loss in value of their homes that occurred during the recession.

As prices increase, sellers are able to avoid an “upside-down”--selling their home for less than they paid--and recover their investment. “More stuff is going to come on the market,” Karevoll said.

“What will happen now undoubtedly is that prices will ratchet themselves up to another plateau. We’re still behind the peaks of 1991, but the rate we’re going, we’ll come close to those price levels by the end of 1998.”

And with interest rates continuing to hover around 7% and prices rising, the outlook for 1998 is expected to be positive all around, McClintock said. “We see 1998 as a very fortunate year for both buyers and sellers,” she said.