Median O.C. Home Price Tops $400,000
The median sales price of a home in Orange County surpassed $400,000 for the first time in April, leading a run of spectacular year-over-year price increases throughout Southern California, according to a report released Tuesday.
However, sales last month fell in Orange and Ventura counties -- the region’s most expensive markets. And analysts said buyers increasingly are having to settle for homes farther from work because of the shrinking supply of more-affordable properties.
“For the first time in my career, I don’t have one listing under $1 million,” said Karen Lynch, a Prudential California Realty broker who mainly works in pricey Orange County markets such as Newport Beach and Corona del Mar. “A lot of people have been forced out to the rim of the county to buy their homes, and they have been forced into hourlong commutes to work.”
Tuesday’s report, from DataQuick Information Systems, showed that the median sales price of new and existing houses and condominiums in Southern California was $307,000 last month, a 19% increase from $258,000 in April 2002.
The year-over-year percentage increases ranged from almost 17% for Ventura County to 20.5% for San Diego County. Orange County’s increase was 19.3%. Prices hit record highs in all of the major counties, except San Diego, according to DataQuick.
April’s median home price, or the point at which half sold for more and half for less, was $402,000 in Orange County and $370,000 in Ventura County. Riverside County’s median price was $240,000 and it was $185,000 for San Bernardino County. San Diego County’s median price rose to $358,000.
DataQuick reported that April’s median home price in Los Angeles County rose 19% on a year-over-year basis to $303,000.
For all of Southern California, the number of houses and condos sold in April dipped by 0.5% from a year earlier, to 30,823 properties. Orange County’s sales fell 6.5% in April and sales were off almost 5% in Ventura County and 2% in San Bernardino County. Meanwhile, San Diego County showed the region’s strongest year-over-year sales gain in April with 3.4%.
Real estate experts, brokers and agents blamed the short supply of homes for the region’s overall sales decline, along with high refinancing activity that slowed down the system.
Despite the drop in sales, analysts said, the region’s long-running real estate boom should continue.
April 2003 is very different from April 1989, said John Karevoll, the DataQuick analyst who compiles the sales and prices from property records. “Foreclosures are low. Payment sizes are stable, price increases are stable and demand is strong. We think that these numbers might stay in place for awhile,” he said.
Karevoll added that the market indicators that should have set off alarms in 1989 were very different.
“Back then we saw high-end home prices rising spectacularly and entry-level home sales were dead, then it flip-flopped before the market went into decline,” he said. “Now, we have a pipeline and demand is strong in every category: starter homes, mid-market and prestige listings.”
Lynch, the Orange County broker, said she has 14 listings, compared with an average low of 18 listings and an average high of 30 as recently as last year.
Other agents said homes are selling quickly after they are put on the market and that multiple offers for homes are common.
Lynch said her best example was a development that “isn’t even in the high end of Newport Beach,” where sellers estimated prices would start at $550,000. “That’s already been adjusted to $850,000 in the past six months,” she said, “and they just broke ground on the project.”
