Low Rates Fuel Busy Home-Buying Year in Ventura County
A home-buying flurry fueled by historically low interest rates pushed Ventura County sales this year to levels not seen since the housing boom of the 1980s, analysts say.
Even with a sluggish national economy and a two-week standstill after the September terrorist attacks, sales reached a 13-year high.
“It’s the best year since 1988, that’s for sure,” said John Karevoll, an analyst for DataQuick Information Systems, a statistical research service. “And next year looks good too.”
Through the first 11 months, sales for new and existing single-family homes and condos were up 8.8% from the same period in 2000, also a boom year, and prices surged 6.3%, DataQuick reported. The figures reflect closed escrows.
Among the six Southland counties, Ventura ranked first in sales growth, up 9%, or more than 1,000 dwellings, even outstripping the rate in the fast-growing Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
By comparison, Southern California’s overall sales were up less than 1%. Sales in Los Angeles County rose 1.4%, and in Orange County dropped 7.4%.
Ventura County sales are projected to reach 16,350 for all of 2001, nearly double the totals of a decade ago, when the real estate market hit bottom, Karevoll said.
Not since 1988, when 18,346 dwellings sold, has the market been so hot. The average price has rebounded from a low of $189,000 in 1995 to $275,000 this year.
Much of the gain came as mortgage rates fell to 40-year lows in November.
Rates last week averaged 7.1% for a 30-year mortgage, up from 6.45% in early November, but about the same as last year. Rates for the same mortgage were about 10% in 1989.
From Thousand Oaks to Ventura, buyers took advantage of low rates, snapping up large houses in upscale neighborhoods or buying small homes in established neighborhoods so quickly that many homes sold in days and some new listings prompted multiple offers.
“I sold my house in one day,” said Jim Keith, past president of the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors. “I hadn’t even put it on the market yet, just held an open house.”
Keith’s 3,000-square-foot tract home with views of Wildwood Park sold this month for about $75,000 more than it would have last December, he said.
“It was a good sales year, except for that little lull after Sept. 11,” he said. “And next year should be very strong, assuming there is no funny stuff going on in the United States.”
Making the same point, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. of America reported last week that a record number of people applied for home loans the week before Christmas.
But Ventura County has a housing shortage that could sharply cut sales next year, even as prices continue to rise, real estate experts said.
The inventory of available dwellings in western Ventura County is 659 single-family homes and 139 condos, said Elaine Pettersen, president of the Realtors group for all west county cities except Ojai.
That compares with about 1,500 dwellings for sale as the market began to rebound in 1997.
“There’s not much on the market right now,” Pettersen said, “and that’s going to be true indefinitely, because with these growth controls, we’re just not building enough homes.”
The county’s seven largest cities have passed anti-sprawl measures that restrict development outside city boundaries.
“Our prices have gone through the ceiling,” Pettersen said. Her association, which compiles data only on existing homes, found that the price of a typical west county home rose from $298,000 to $349,000 during the last year.
“And it’s still going up; it’s all supply and demand,” she said. “And when there’s a really good house in a prime neighborhood, everybody’s waiting to attack. We all have buyers waiting. And the buyers are very educated about what they want.”
There are signs of slowing from the superheated market of the spring and summer, she said. “Some of the properties are staying on the market longer.”
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Ventura County Home Sales, 1992-2001
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Total sales Median price 1992 8,895 $205,000 1993 9,648 $198,000 1994 10,783 $192,000 1995 9,595 $189,000 1996 10,660 $193,000 1997 11,815 $204,000 1998 14,650 $219,000 1999 15,666 $238,000 2000 15,318 $259,000 2001 16,350 $275,000*
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*Projected based on closed escrows through first 11 months of 2001 and preliminary December sales reports.
Source: DataQuick Information Systems
