Housing woes continue

The housing market continued to struggle during March, both regionally and locally.

In Southern California, 17,638 single-family homes were sold last month, a 14.3 percent drop year-over-year, according to the monthly housing report released today by DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla.

They were also the lowest sales figures for March in six years, and 27 percent below the average sales for  March since 1988, when DataQuick started tracking the Southern California real estate market.

Prices remained strong. The median price of a single-family home in the six-county region last month was $400,000, a 15.8 percent jump from March 2013, according to DataQuick.

DataQuick defines Southern California as the Inland Empire plus Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Several factors explain the slow Southern California housing market this year, including lack of inventory – not enough houses are being built – a drop in investment purchases and the jump in prices, which has pushed many first-time buyers out of the market, the report stated.

In the Inland Empire, home sales fell dramatically last month, down 13.2 percent in Riverside County and 14.9 percent in San Bernardino County. Just as in Southern California, prices were solid: the median price of a home last month in Riverside County was $288,500, a 17.8 percent increase compared with March 2013, while in San Bernardino County the $230,000 median price was a 21 percent increase year-over-year, according to DataQuick.

One piece of good news is that foreclosure sales continue to fade and have a dwindling impact on the market.  Such sales accounted for 6.4 percent of the Southern California resale market last month, down from 13.8 percent one year ago, according to DataQuick.