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Socal prices now ‘less lopsided'

Southern California house and condominium prices jumped 10 percent in February from a year earlier as homebuyers took advantage of tax incentives.

The median price climbed to $275,000 from $250,000 a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said today in a statement. It was the third straight month that prices in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties had an annual gain, according to the San Diego-based research company.

A federal tax credit for buyers who sign contracts by April 30 boosted prices in February, along with a declining proportion of lower-cost foreclosed properties being sold, MDA DataQuick said. Foreclosures accounted for 42 percent of the region's existing-home sales, down from almost 57 percent a year earlier.

"The market is less lopsided, but before a real rebalancing occurs adjustable-rate and jumbo mortgages need to come back," John Walsh, MDA DataQuick's president, said in the statement. "Not to where they were in 2007, but back to where they were a few years before that."

The median price of a Southern California home is still 46 percent less than the peak of $505,000 in 2007, according to MDA Dataquick. It fell to as low as $247,000 last April.

A total of 15,359 new and existing homes sold last month in the six Southern California counties tracked by MDA DataQuick, up 0.8 percent from a year earlier and little changed from the 15,361 sold in January.

MDA DataQuick is a unit of Richmond, British Columbia-based MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. It compiles surveys using county records and supplies real-estate information to public agencies, lenders and title companies.

Price Cuts

As of the beginning of March, 23 percent of homes on the market in Orange County had their prices cut at least once, higher than the U.S. average of 19 percent, according to real estate data provider Trulia Inc. Twenty percent of homes were reduced in Riverside county, 19 percent in Los Angeles; 18 percent in Ventura; 17 percent in San Bernardino and 14 percent in San Diego.

The average price cut ranged from 10 percent in Ventura County to 15 percent in San Bernardino, according to San Francisco-based Trulia.

San Bernardino was the only Southern California county with a median price drop last month, MDA DataQuick said. It fell to $150,000 from $153,000 a year earlier.

Source: www.businessweek.com