L.A. Times - Local Home Prices Up, Sales Down

Jesus Sanchez again discusses our regional housing market in this July 18 L.A.Times story. Home prices in Southern California climbed to a new high in June, but sales are slumping throughout the region.

The median June price for homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernadino, Ventura, Orange, and San Diego counties rose 6% YOY to $493,000, at the lowest appreciation rate since May 2000. Sales slumped 17.5% YOY, the lowest number of sales for the month of June since 1999.

And there's that word that former Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan loved to toss out - conundrum. Apparently, DataQuick finds rising prices and slumping sales an example of one, though the research firm did say that prices could even decline a bit in the second half of 2006.

We already know sales are down in Los Angeles county, now the data is out for the other counties. Down 32.3% in Ventura, down 26.3% in Orange, down nearly 15% in San Bernadino and down 8.6% in Riverside.

San Bernadino County still sports a double-digit gain in median price YOY, up 14% to $367,000. Orange County median price is up 7.1% YOY to $646,000; for Ventura it is up 7.4% to $627,000; Riverside is up 7.4% to $422,000.