L.A. Home Sales Remain Strong in December

The median price for homes sold in Southern California during December rose 7.3% on a year-over-year basis to $176,000, according to Acxiom/Dataquick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate research firm. December sales of existing and new homes in the area--which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties--jumped 19.4% from the same month in 1996 to 22,924 properties. The sales figure was the highest recorded since August 1990, when more than 24,000 homes were sold, according to DataQuick. San Diego County reported the sharpest increase in the median price--11% to $192,000--while the median remained flat in San Bernardino at $124,000. In the region’s two largest housing markets, the median price in Los Angeles County rose 7.4% to $175,000 and Orange County reported a 10.3% increase to $215,000.