IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Southern California housing market isn’t finishing 2014 with bang.
Home sales in November were at their lowest for that month in seven years, while home prices also flattened, according to CoreLogic DataQuick’s monthly report on the region’s housing industry.
A total of 15,634 houses and condominiums were sold in the six-county region last month, down 9.5 percent compared with November 2013, the report stated.
Several factors were cited for the decline, including not enough days for recording deals – 17, compared with 22 or 23 in October depending on the county – and a drop in investor purchases, according to the report, which was released Monday.
The end of the year, when people start focusing on the holiday shopping season, is never a good time for the housing market. Since 1988 – the year DataQuick, as it was known then, started tracking the housing industry – the average decline in housing sales between October and November has been 8.4 percent.
On the price side, the news last month wasn’t much better.
The median price of a single-family home last month in Southern California was $412,000, up seven percent from Nov. 2013. That was essentially unchanged since September, the report stated.
“Southern California home sales are closing on a low note,” said Andrew LePage, data analyst for CoreLogic DataQuick, in a statement. “Inventory still lags [behind] demand in many markets and traditional buyers haven’t filled the void left by the investors who have pulled out.
“Among would-be buyers, affordability and mortgage availability remain hurdles, as do concerns about job security and the direction of the housing market.”
Locally, year-over-year sales last month fell 10 percent in Riverside County and 9.6 percent in San Bernardino County.
Riverside County last month recorded a median price of $305,000, down nearly 11 percent compared with November 2013, while San Bernardino County’s median price – $255,000 – represented a 16.7 percent drop during that time, according to CoreLogic DataQuick.
