IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Single-family home sales in Southern California dropped in January compared with the previous year, as the market continued its trend of year-over-year sales declines.
A total of 13,560 homes were sold in the six-county region during the first month of the year, a drop of 6.3 percent from January 2014, according to CoreLogic DataQuick in San Diego.
Home sales in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties and the Inland Empire have now dropped in 14 of the previous sixteen months, DataQuick stated in its monthly report on the Southern California housing market, which was released Tuesday.
Compared with December, the drop was far more dramatic – 29.4 percent – although that’s close to an average December-to-January drop in sales in Southern California, according to DataQuick.
January sales have averaged 17,322 units since 1988, the year DataQuick, as it was known then, began tracking the housing market.
On the price side, the median price of a single-family home last month was $409,000, a 7.6 percent year-over-year increase. That was a drop compared with December, but the 34th consecutive month that the median price was up in Southern California compared with the previous year, CoreLogic stated.
While the sales numbers aren’t great, and the rising median price indicates a market that is difficult for first-time buyers to enter, they might not be as bad as they appear.
“The January and February statistics are always interesting, and sometimes a bit strange, but they’re not necessarily a good indication of what’s to come,” said Andrew LePage, analyst for CoreLogic DataQuick, in a statement. “That’s largely because many traditional buyers and sellers drop out of the housing market during the holidays and mid-winter, and therefore don’t close deals during those months.”
In the Inland Empire, sales were down 9.8 percent in Riverside County and 10.4 percent in San Bernardino County year-over-year. Median prices – $287,500 in Riverside County and $236,000 in San Bernardino County – were up 3.8 percent and 7.3 percent respectively, CoreLogic DataQuick stated.
