Housing sales drop dramatically

The Southern California housing market had its weakest January in three years, as higher prices, a smaller inventory and stiff lending rules combined to drive down sales in the six-county region.

Sales were down 9.9 percent from January 2013, the fourth consecutive month that single-family home sales in the region have dropped year-to-year, according to DataQuick in San Diego.

One explanation for that trend was that prices got higher. The median price of a home last month in Southern California was $380,000, an 18.4 percent increase compared with January of last year.

The Inland Empire, as it often does, followed all of Southern California. Sales were down 9.9 percent in Riverside County and 10.6 percent in San Bernardino County, according to DataQuick, which released its monthly housing data Wednesday.

Prices, however, jumped dramatically: up 22.6 percent in Riverside County, where the median price was $277,000, and up 23.9 percent in San Bernardino County, where the median price was $220,000.

January sales in Southern in Southern California were down 17.3 percent for the month of January dating back to 1988, the year DataQuick began publishing monthly reports on the Southern California housing market.

“The economy is growing, but Southland home sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for four consecutive months and remain well below average,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president, in a statement. “We’re still putting a lot of the blame on low in inventory, (but) mortgage availability, the rise in interest rates and higher home prices matter too.”

Fortunately, January and February are “atypical” months that generally are not accurate predictors of where the market is headed, Walsh said.

“Two of the bigger questions hanging over the housing market right now are ‘how much pent-up demand is left out there?’ and ‘will inventory skyrocket this year as more owners take advantage of the price run-up?,’ Walsh said in the statement. “Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to wait until spring for the answers to those questions.”