By Kevin Smith, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, West Covina, Calif.Apr. 22--California's median home price posted its biggest annual gain in more than five years last month, rising 20.8 percent to $301,790.
The March figure was up from $249,790 a year earlier, the California Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
Realtors throughout the nation have been grappling with tight inventories, a factor that has driven prices up and kept sales low. Home sales in California fell 2.5 percent in March compared with February but were up 2.5 percent from March 2009.
"With the number of homes for sale in the state expected to remain lean, gains in the statewide median price may well outpace the nation going forward," CAR President Steve Goddard said in a statement.
Los Angeles County's median home price was $329,190 in March, up 0.7 percent from February and up 11.6 percent from a year ago.
Housing sales in the county were more dramatic, rising 29.4 percent in March from the previous month, although year-over-year sales were up only 5.5 percent.
Robert Kleinhenz, CAR's deputy chief economist, put the monthly sales jump in perspective.
"This is the time of year when we typically see a jump in sales -- from February to March," he said. "And if you take a look at the data for other regions, we had big month-to-month gains across the state."
The numbers bear that out. The San Luis Obispo region experienced the state's biggest monthly sales gain in February (61.3 percent). But other areas also
had big gains, including Santa Barbara South Coast (51.1 percent), Santa Barbara County (49.6 percent), San Francisco Bay (48.1 percent) and Santa Cruz County (42.2 percent).
Median home prices also increased significantly in some San Gabriel Valley cities.
Arcadia experienced the second largest increase in the state, with its median home price jumping 40.2 percent in March to $726,136 compared with $518,000 a year earlier.
Kleinhenz had a theory about that.
"I don't have the raw data, but part of it may have to do with the mix of sales," he said. "Arcadia is not exclusively made up of detached homes, so there may have been a little bit bigger mix of condos that kept prices down before."
Kleinhenz said Arcadia's sales were likely nudged even higher by buyers taking advantage of state and federal tax credits that weren't around the previous year.
Other cities that experienced significant annual price gains include San Gabriel (13.7 percent), Montebello (10.5 percent), Duarte (9.3 percent), San Dimas (9 percent), El Monte (8.6 percent) and Alhambra (8 percent).
Regionally, the lowest-priced area of the state was the High Desert. In March, the High Desert's median home price was $122,970, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, CAR reported.
Tom Adams, owner of Century 21 Adams & Barnes, is hopeful that the housing market is finally getting back on track.
"We're cautiously optimistic," he said. "If things continue to improve -- barring any unforeseen calamity -- I think we're on the path the recovery."
Adams noted, however, that some areas, such as the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley, are still in for a long and slow recovery.
"Lenders are still not releasing the supposed flood of foreclosures we've been hearing about," he said. "That provides a nudge for prices to go up, and every little nudge allows more people to break even rather than go through the foreclosure process."
Kleinhenz said the housing market is faring better than some might think.
"I'm not concerned about getting back to the sales that occurred during the peak years in 2004 and 2005," he said. "We're right around where we were in the pre-peak years. When I look at Los Angeles County 5.5 percent increase in year-over-year sales it's not that big of a gain. But we're comparing it with pretty strong figures from the previous year."
