San Diego Home Prices Remain Level 3 Straight Months

From The San Diego Union Tribune, April 15, 2009

San Diego County home prices remained relatively level in March for the third straight month as sales rocketed upward, a possible sign of a stabilizing market, MDA DataQuick reported Wednesday.

The overall median remained unchanged from February at $285,000, which was $5,000 higher than January, making the opening quarter of the year the first to show no decline from the previous quarter since 2006.

Sales totaled 3,020, up 22.3 percent from February, the highest February-March increase in three years. It was up 43.3 percent from March 2008.

Single-family-resale home prices were down $1,000 from February to $319,000, and off 44.4 percent from the all-time peak of $574,000 in May 2006. Sales totaled 1,928, up 22.3 percent from February and 61.1 percent from a year earlier.

The median price for resale condos was $180,000, down from $195,000 in February and 37.9 percent below year-ago levels. The all-time peak of $400,000 was set in four different months in 2005 and 2006. Sales last month totaled 888, up from 725 in February and 592 in March 2008.

Newly built homes and condo conversions stood at a median $436,000, down from $452,000 in February and $450,000 a year earlier. Sales totaled 204, up from 168 in February but down from 319 in March 2008.

For the fifth straight month, a majority of sales involved properties that had been foreclosed on in the previous 12 months. But the 51.1 percentage was down for the third straight month from the peak of 55 percent in December. However, some market watchers expect an uptick in foreclosures and foreclosure sales in the next few months as lenders end moratoriums that forestalled foreclosures.

DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement that the figures do not represent the overall state of the housing market because so few upper-end properties are selling amid the continuing credit crunch.

“Those neighborhoods are dormant right now,” he said, “but when so-called jumbo financing becomes available (for loans exceeding $417,000), possibly before summer, we expect enough sales to close escrow and generate more meaningful price statistics.”

By Robert Showley