Housing market still favors the sellers

Southern California’s housing market remained a seller’s market in September.

The median price of a single-family home last month was $413,000, the highest price for September in five years, according to CoreLogic DataQuick’s monthly report on the region’s housing industry.

That price, an 8.1 percent year-over-year increase, was slightly below the 80-month high reached in August.

For the first time in more than two years, none of the six counties that make up Southern California posted a year-over-year price gain that didn’t reach double digits, the report stated.

Sales were up 1.2 percent compared with September 2013, as a total of 19,348 new and used houses and condominiums were sold.

“Price appreciation has dipped into single-digit territory as more get priced out [of the market], investors back off and incomes rise modestly at best,” said Andrew LePage, an analyst with CoreLogic DataQuick. “Yet there are still upward forces on home prices: jobs are being created, and families started at a time when the supply of existing homes for sale, as well as the number of new homes being built, remains relatively low.”

Sales were up 1.8 percent in San Bernardino County and down 0.8 percent in Riverside County year-over-year, while prices spiked: up 5.8 percent in San Bernardino County, to a median price of $238,000, and up 9.7 percent in Riverside County, to a median price of $295,000, CoreLogic DataQuick reported.