In the six county Southern California region, a total of 20,514 new and resale homes sold last month, according to the latest market figures from DataQuick.
That was up 5.2% from March and up 31.4% from one year ago, and it represented the highest one month total since April of 2006, when 27,114 homes sold.
For the entire SoCal region, foreclosures represented 53.6% of all sales, but in San Diego that number was only 47%. Much of the heat in the foreclosure market is coming from inland areas like Lake Elsinore, Perris, Moreno Valley and Indio, which were among the last places to "boom" during the good times and amongh the first to go "bust" during the downturn.
The sales picture was dramatically different in many older, high-end communities closer to the coast, where foreclosures and deep discounts are less common. Sales of existing houses remained at or near record lows for an April in markets such as Beverly Hills, Malibu, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Manhattan Beach and Pacific Palisades.
Among the reasons high-end sales remain so sluggish: The “jumbo” mortgages needed to buy such homes have been more expensive and much harder to obtain since August 2007, when the credit crunch hit. Before then, nearly 40 percent of Southland sales were financed with jumbo loans, then defined as over $417,000. Last month it was 10.9 percent.
In the more affordable inland areas, first-time buyers have relied heavily on government-insured FHA financing. Such loans were used to finance a near-record 39.1 percent of all Southland home purchases last month, up from 18.4 percent a year ago. In the Inland Empire, more than half of all April home purchases were financed with FHA loans.
Absentee buyers, including investors who will have their property tax bills sent to a different address, bought 18.6 percent of the Southland homes sold last month. That’s up from 17 percent a year ago and compares with a 15 percent monthly average since 2000.
Across the Southland, the median price paid for all homes combined last month was $247,000, down 1.2 percent from $250,000 in March and down 35.8 percent from $385,000 a year ago. Last month’s median was the lowest since it was $242,000 in February 2002, and was 51.1 percent below the peak $505,000 median reached in spring and summer of 2007.
To access the latest DataQuick article and sales chart, click HERE
That was up 5.2% from March and up 31.4% from one year ago, and it represented the highest one month total since April of 2006, when 27,114 homes sold.
For the entire SoCal region, foreclosures represented 53.6% of all sales, but in San Diego that number was only 47%. Much of the heat in the foreclosure market is coming from inland areas like Lake Elsinore, Perris, Moreno Valley and Indio, which were among the last places to "boom" during the good times and amongh the first to go "bust" during the downturn.
The sales picture was dramatically different in many older, high-end communities closer to the coast, where foreclosures and deep discounts are less common. Sales of existing houses remained at or near record lows for an April in markets such as Beverly Hills, Malibu, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Manhattan Beach and Pacific Palisades.
Among the reasons high-end sales remain so sluggish: The “jumbo” mortgages needed to buy such homes have been more expensive and much harder to obtain since August 2007, when the credit crunch hit. Before then, nearly 40 percent of Southland sales were financed with jumbo loans, then defined as over $417,000. Last month it was 10.9 percent.
In the more affordable inland areas, first-time buyers have relied heavily on government-insured FHA financing. Such loans were used to finance a near-record 39.1 percent of all Southland home purchases last month, up from 18.4 percent a year ago. In the Inland Empire, more than half of all April home purchases were financed with FHA loans.
Absentee buyers, including investors who will have their property tax bills sent to a different address, bought 18.6 percent of the Southland homes sold last month. That’s up from 17 percent a year ago and compares with a 15 percent monthly average since 2000.
Across the Southland, the median price paid for all homes combined last month was $247,000, down 1.2 percent from $250,000 in March and down 35.8 percent from $385,000 a year ago. Last month’s median was the lowest since it was $242,000 in February 2002, and was 51.1 percent below the peak $505,000 median reached in spring and summer of 2007.
To access the latest DataQuick article and sales chart, click HERE
