State’s Sellers Gain More in Less Time

California homes sold faster in the second quarter of 1999 than at any other time during this decade, with sellers making their largest profits in the last seven years, according to a real estate trade group survey released last week.

The typical California home sold in the second quarter was on the market for four weeks, less time than during any other period since 1989, said a housing finance survey released Wednesday by the California Assn. of Realtors.

Two years ago, the average California home spent eight weeks on the market before selling.

In addition, sellers netted a median profit of $65,000 from the sales of their homes, the highest figure since 1991, when the median gain was $68,000.

“We’re in a mature part of the recovery,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, the association’s chief economist, referring to the rebound of real estate prices, which began in the Bay Area five years ago. “People are carrying a significant amount of equity away from their transactions.”

As another sign of what Appleton-Young called a “speedy, active market,” the survey found that the median price discount--the difference between the seller’s asking price and the final sale price--was 3.2%, down from 3.5% a year ago.

The lowest discount rate in the survey’s 18-year history was 2%, a figure posted in both 1988 and 1989.

The second-quarter survey, which polled 935 Realtors statewide on the details of their most recent transactions, also showed that 38% of home buyers and sellers used the Internet at some point during the process.

Those who used Web sites to find information about homes for sale, neighborhoods, mortgages or to pre-qualify for mortgages were defined as Internet buyers in the survey.

Of the Internet buyers, 7.6% used the sale of stock for their down payment, compared to 1.4% of traditional buyers, the survey said.

In the first quarter of this year, the association’s survey found, 10.2% of buyers said the stock market played a significant role in their decision to participate in the housing market.

In this quarter, only 6.6% said the stock market played a role in their decision to buy or sell.

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In addition, the data showed:

* Internet buyers tend to look at homes with a list price $20,250 higher than the median list price for all buyers and tend to pay more in cash for their down payments--$46,600 compared to $33,000 for the average buyer.

Appleton-Young said this was true across the state, not just in high-priced pockets like Silicon Valley.

* Fifty-nine percent of buyers were married, down from 62.7% in the same period last year; 30% were single, a slight increase from last year; and 9.7% were two or more related or unrelated people, up from 8.5% last year. The remaining 1.3% declined to provide this information.

* Ten percent of homes were purchased entirely with cash, up from 8% a year ago.

* Fixed-rate loans comprised 84.6% of the mortgages issued in California in the second quarter, compared to 89.1% during the same period last year. Adjustable-rate loans made up 8.2% of new mortgages, compared to 7.5% last year. Other kinds of mortgages, including fixed-rate loans with balloon payments and fixed-rate that convert to adjustable, made up 7.1% of loans.

The survey, which was mailed in June to 10,000 Realtors statewide, has been conducted annually since 1981. The survey shifted to a quarterly schedule this year.