Area Home Sales Drop in June but Prices Rise
Unlike the rest of Southern California, home sales in Ventura County slumped last month, although prices continued to climb, a sign, economists said, that a slow-down in the building of new homes is catching up with the county.
Sales across the county fell 7.2% compared with June of last year, while the median price was up 4.5% to $255,000, very close to the record price in the county. That compares with jumps in Orange and Los Angeles counties, which had home sales rise 1% and 7%, respectively.
In Ventura County, “the demand is greater than the supply. It’s simple economics,” said Mark Schniepp, director of the Center for Regional Economic Research in Santa Barbara. “Most people understand that at some level, so I don’t think there’s any concern that the market is going to collapse.”
Last month, 1,459 homes sold in the county, down from 1,572 in June 1999, according to a report by Acxiom/DataQuick, a La Jolla-based research firm. The sales figures include new and resale homes as well as condominiums. The median is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
The interest rate for an average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was at 7.9% Thursday, according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of nearly 3,000 banks in 50 states.
Economists said that, despite a series of interest rate hikes, local residents in the market for a house are still feeling economically secure and are able to pay up, even as prices rise.
“We’ve got people who finally decided to move up, and, yeah, it’s going to cost them more,” said Rob Martell, a broker at Remax Gold Coast Realty in Camarillo. “I think that sellers are saying it’s now or never.”
Real estate agent Jackie Carroll, who works at Prudential California Realty in Thousand Oaks, said some of her clients are frustrated by the low inventory and have found themselves shelling out more than they expected, but aren’t yet stopped by sticker shock.
One family sold its house, looked for a similar one in the same neighborhood and ended up paying $50,000 more than it had hoped, she said.
“To stay in the area they wanted, they had to pay” more, she said, “which they could do, but they didn’t want to have to.”
Nonetheless, Martell said he has found his sphere expanding to houses outside of his usual territory in the search for affordable homes: into Simi Valley, Santa Paula and Oxnard.
That is in part due to the unpopularity of development across the county, economists said.
“Oxnard is the best real estate buy in the county,” said Bill Watkins, director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. “There’s still construction going on there, but it’s going to stop. It can’t go on indefinitely.”
In June, north Oxnard and Fillmore had the highest bump in sales, with the number of homes changing hands up 41% and 91.7% respectively. Median price soared from $141,000 to $225,000 in Fillmore. In north Oxnard, prices stayed relatively steady, inching up 2.2%, from $191,000 to $195,250.
Though prices rose consistently across the county, the number of houses sold plummeted in many areas. In western Camarillo and Santa Paula sales dropped by about a third from the same time last year. In south Oxnard, Simi Valley and eastern Thousand Oaks, sales dropped by about a quarter.
Economists said the trend is going to continue--and that in part, the drop comes just because 1999 was such a hot year--thanks to growth-control measures like SOAR and other strict zoning laws. That could affect hiring, because businesses may be unable to house new employees.
“If [county residents] want low-density, high-price housing, that’s their choice,” Watkins said. “You look at how far people are [commuting]. They’ll drive a long way.”
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Ventura County House Sales
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CAMARILLO
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93010 112 $244,000 76 $281,000 93012 104 $285,750 91 $268,000
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FILLMORE
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93015 12 $141,000 23 $225,000
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MOORPARK
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93021 62 $256,750 78 $295,500
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OAK PARK
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 91377 44 $271,000 56 $297,000
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OAK VIEW
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93022 16 $210,500 14 $246,500
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OJAI
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93023 36 $250,500 30 $353,250
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OXNARD
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93030 95 $191,000 134 $195,250 93033 74 $156,000 55 $183,500 93035 59 $209,000 65 $266,500
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PORT HUENEME
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93041 50 $150,000 49 $155,000
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SANTA PAULA
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93060 28 $170,000 19 $166,000
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SIMI VALLEY
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93063 132 $201,000 141 $250,000 93065 201 $230,000 149 $255,000
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THOUSAND OAKS
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 91320 113 $303,500 90 $322,500 91360 101 $266,000 84 $285,000 91361 36 $440,000 34 $422,500 91362 109 $345,000 79 $385,000
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VENTURA
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June 1999 June 2000 Number Median Number Median ZIP Code of sales price of sales price 93001 51 $199,000 59 $240,000 93003 98 $218,000 89 $243,000 93004 43 $231,500 38 $276,000
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Source: Acxiom / DataQuick Information Systems
