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TMCNet: Home sales in Southern California soar 65 percent

[October 21, 2008]

Home sales in Southern California soar 65 percent

(Daily News (Los Angeles) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 21--Home sales in Southern California soared a record 65 percent during September as discounted foreclosures drove down prices and lured bargain hunters into the market, an industry tracker said Monday.

Foreclosures accounted for half of last month's 20,497 sales, said San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

A year earlier, they totaled 13 percent of 12,455 sales -- a record low number of transactions blamed on a widespread credit freeze that is still curtailing mortgages.

"The pitifully low September 2007 sales numbers weren't tough to beat. More impressive was that this September's sales volume bucked the seasonal norm and rose above August" by 6 percent, DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.

Across the six-county region, the median price of new and previously owned houses and condominiums plunged 33 percent, from $462,000 in September 2007 to $308,500 last month.

Prices are now back to levels last seen in May 2003 and 39 percent below the record $505,000 reached in mid-2007.

Unclear now is what effect the recent spate of bad economic news will have on housing demand.

"The fog has rolled back in and it is thick," said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage.

Credit still remains tight despite wide-ranging federal intervention.

For example, jumbo loans typically used to finance more expensive homes remain hard to obtain.

Before credit standards were tightened in August 2007, some 40 percent of Southern California home sales were financed with jumbo loans. Last month, they accounted for 13 percent of loans used to finance homes costing more than $417,000, DataQuick said.

"It's very difficult to buy a home. It's dried up," Fred Arnold, president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, said of the jumbo market.

However, loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration are playing a much bigger role in today's market and are driving the sales surge of lower-priced homes.

Down payment requirements for these loans range from 3 percent to 5percent.

"We think it's one of the best products on the market because there are a lot of borrowers who can put 3percent down on a purchase," Arnold said of the FHA program.

FHA-insured loans accounted for about 25 percent of those made in Los Angeles County in September, up from less than 1 percent a year ago, LePage said.

More price slashing is likely because foreclosures remain on a record pace, with less-expensive properties accounting for most of the sales.

To see more of the Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Daily News, Los Angeles
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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