March Home Sales Surge; Prices Hold
The traditional spring home-buying season kicked off with a vengeance in March as San Fernando Valley home sales jumped 57.9% but fell short of the previous year’s activity.
A total of 1,058 homes closed escrow in March, up from 670 in February. However, sales were down 5.2% in March compared with the same month a year ago, the Southland Regional Assn. of Realtors reported.
Home values held their ground from February and rose 10.8% from the same period in 2000.
Typically, home buying is strongest during the spring and summer, tapering off during the winter holidays.
Helping the March boost were cuts in interest rates, tight inventory and seasonal factors, said Jim Link, executive vice president of the association.
“We’re seeing a nice rebound after a traditionally slow holiday season,” he said. “The fact that sales are going up is a very strong indicator that the local housing market is not being adversely affected by the slowing economy.”
Despite worries about layoffs, strikes and deteriorating economic conditions, the median cost of a resold single-family home in the Valley was $247,000 in March, unchanged from February but up 10.8% over the same month a year ago, the report said.
Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president and chief economist of the California Assn. of Realtors, said the numbers are good news, especially given current economic conditions and compared with the strength of last year’s market.
“The San Fernando Valley appears to be maintaining its strength as a desirable destination for new and resale home buyers,” Appleton-Young said. “That’s reflected in the low level of inventory, which continues to push prices ever higher.”
But Gail Scalise, an agent at Remax-Olson and Associates in Northridge, said that while the local real estate market is expected to heat up in coming months, prices should hold the line despite the likelihood that demand will outstrip supply.
“In the past two weeks, we’ve already had about two dozen listings, if not more,” Scalise said. “At the moment, we have more buyers than inventory to fill. But I haven’t seen a drastic rise in prices. And I don’t think people are willing to pay ridiculous prices, no matter what the economy is.”
Even so, the dearth of single-family homes continued to push up sales of condominiums. Their median price reached $153,000--just shy of the all-time high of $154,000 set in March 1991. The median price is up 5.5% from February and 11.7% over the same period last year.
Median home prices in the Santa Clarita Valley rose 5.3% to $260,000 in March, up from $244,000 in the same period a year ago.
The report said 249 single-family homes changed hands in the Santa Clarita Valley, up about 33.9% from February and up 44.8% from a year ago.
In the condo market, 139 units changed hands, with a median price of $143,000--up 1.4% from February but still recovering from a 4.4% drop in January. The median condo price rose 7.5%, compared with a year ago.
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Median Home Prices
Single-Family (In Thousands)
March 2000: 223,000
March: 2001: 247,000
*
Condominium (In Thousands)
March: 2000: 137,000
March 2001: 153,000
Source: Southland Regional Assn.of Realtors
