ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 12, 2010 AT 12:08 P.M., UPDATED JULY 12, 2010 AT 6:04 P.M.
MEDIAN HOME PRICE
| Jun-09 | May-10 | Jun-10 | Change from June 2009 | |
| Single-family resale | $350,000 | $377,000 | $380,000 | 8.6% |
| Condo resale | $210,000 | $235,000 | $219,250 | 4.4% |
| New home | $455,500 | $399,000 | $431,000 | 5.4% |
| County | $314,250 | $340,000 | $335,500 | 6.8% |
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HOME SALES
| Jun-09 | May-10 | Jun-10 | Change from June 2009 | |
| Single-family resale | 2299 | 2335 | 2,301 | 0.1% |
| Condo resale | 1,101 | 1,212 | 1,163 | 5.6% |
| New home | 292 | 332 | 421 | 44.2% |
| County | 3,692 | 3,879 | 3,885 | 5.2% |
San Diego County’s rapid run-up in home prices over the last few months took a breather in June, as sales activity remained relatively flat, although still more robust than earlier this year, MDA DataQuick reported Monday.
June’s median price of $335,500 slid 1.3 percent from the May figure of $340,000, while just a month earlier the median, or the midpoint of all prices, had jumped sharply. But compared to a year ago the June median was up 6.8 percent and represents the ninth straight month of year-over-year increases.
Meanwhile, last month’s sales tally of 3,885 homes and condos marked the highest June in four years, although DataQuick pointed out that it was still 17 percent below the average activity for that month since the company began tracking the market in 1988.
The recent flurry of activity in the housing market had been fueled in part by a June 30 deadline for securing a lucrative federal tax credit available to both first-time and repeat buyers. Although the deadline for closing purchases has since been extended to Sept. 30, buyers had to have contracted to purchase their homes by April 30.
Some experts believe that sales and prices will taper off in the coming months once the more high-volume summer buying season comes to an end and the effect of the federal credit wanes.
“I don’t see a big sales drop. There will be a small dip in the median price but nothing to worry about,” said Mark Marquez, president of the San Diego Association of Realtors. “We still have a solid base of buyer activity, but it won’t be at May and June levels. It’s not as brisk because there are no deadlines to rush to meet. We are seeing a rise in inventory, and people will probably negotiate harder, and they have time to do so.”
According to the San Diego Association of Realtors, active listings on the market stood at 12,047 as of Monday, up from 9,209 a year ago.
Among single-family resales, prices did climb last month, rising nearly 1 percent to $380,000, the highest since July of 2008, when the median-priced home sale was $399,000.
Also showing a monthly uptick were new home prices, which rose from $399,000 in May to $431,000 in June, although the median price was down 5.4 percent from June a year ago. Sales of newly built homes surged more than 44 percent compared to a year earlier and were also up significantly from May, influenced, at least in part, by buyers rushing to nab the tax credit.
Expect the market, though, to remain relatively sluggish in the coming months as the stimulus from the tax credit starts to fade and economic worries persist, say analysts.
“Right now, I don’t see any reason to see a big surge in sales, just a very slow recovery based on the economic signals we have now,” said Norm Miller, a University of San Diego economist and Co-star Group vice president. “But if you can jump into the single family market now, you can’t do any better. Prices are not likely to go down, and interest rates are so low.”
Although the mix of housing that has sold over the last year has become more diversified, with sales of higher end homes picking up, the greatest appreciation during the last quarter appeared to be concentrated in the county’s lower priced neighborhoods, DataQuick statistics show.
In the second quarter, for instance, the median price for single-family resales was up 38.3 percent in Spring Valley and 25.9 percent in Logan Heights, while Solana Beach saw a 28.6 percent drop, compared to a year earlier. However, some pricier upscale neighborhoods did fare better than others, such as Del Mar, where the median home price shot up 18.3 percent to $1.3 million.
While sales of distressed properties continue to play a significant role in the housing market, their share continues to fall as the supply of foreclosed homes diminishes. The proportion of the resale market made up of homes foreclosed on in the prior 12 months slid last month, down to 28.4 percent, compared to 38.6 percent a year earlier, making it the lowest since November of 2007, according to DataQuick.
“Home values going forward will depend on how lenders handle the remaining distress out there,” said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. “My sense is if there are not a lot changes in the economy and the level of foreclosures sales doesn’t rise, prices will be pretty flat through the end of the year. It looks like we’re in a period of stagnation that normally follows a large decline.”
Lori Weisberg: (619) 293-2251; lori.weisberg@uniontrib.com
