June So. California Home Sales Highest Since 2006
1. A total of 23,871 new and resale homes were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 7.2 percent from 22,270 in May, and up 2.6 percent from 23,262 for June 2009 (see chart).
2. The sales count was the highest since July last year when 24,104 homes were sold. It was the strongest month of June since 2006 when 31,602 homes sold. The average June since 1988 has had 28,086 sales.
3. The median price paid for a Southland home was $300,000 last month. That was down 1.6 percent from $305,000 in May, and up 13.2 percent from $265,000 for June 2009 (see chart). The low point of the current cycle was $247,000 in April 2009, the high point was $505,000 in mid 2007.
4. Foreclosure resales accounted for 33.0 percent of the resale market last month, down from 33.9 percent in May, and down from 45.3 percent a year ago (see chart). The all-time high was February 2009 at 56.7 percent."
MP: More evidence of a continuing recovery in the California real estate market with June sales exceeding both May 2010 and June 2009 and reaching a four-year high for June, median home prices are above a year ago by 13.2%, and ongoing declines in foreclosures as a share of total sales. Record-low mortgage rates likely also played a role, and will continue to support the real estate recovery in Southern California.
8 Comments:
Slow crawl toward recovery ‡ V shaped recovery
Fire sale prices ‡ healthy housing market
Federal subsidy of $8000 + state subsidy of $10000 + government insured FHA loans + absentee buyers + government modification programs ‡ free market recovery
Looks bad. Sales are still low as are prices. There is a huge amount of inventory that will keep adding supply even as demand falls as productive people flee bankrupt California for other states.
We need Fed quantitative easing--we especially need to avoid deflation in real estate markets.
And even though the book does not cover this, let us not forget that the secession issue frist came up in the New England states, which threatened to leave the Union a number of times in the early 1800s. Nobody at the time thought that secession and states rights were invalid issues. I suggest that you read a few books to familiarize yourself with the subject.
Whether we like it or not, real estate is still overvalued and prices need to come down. One way to keep them from falling is to have the Fed intervene as you want and to have the USD lose its purchasing power. That is a road to hyperinflation and societal destruction.
So who's buying these homes I wonder?
From the San Francisco Chronicle: Whites in state 'below the replacement' level
Saturday, June 5, 2010
California's white population has declined since 2000 at an unprecedented rate, hastening the day when Hispanics will be the state's largest population group, according to newly released state figures.
There were half a million fewer whites in California in 2008 than in 2000, a period when the state's overall population grew by 4 million to 38.1 million, according to a study released Thursday by the state Department of Finance.
By 2008, whites made up 40 percent of Californians, down from 47 percent at the turn of the century. In 2000, Hispanics comprised 32 percent of the population; that number grew to 37 percent in 2008.
So I guess minorities do get a fair shake in this country...
the MBA purchase index (new mortgage applications) sank another 3.1% this week to the lowest level since 1996.
the 4 week average is off 35% since april.
sure, you can cherrypick a few markets, but that bodes pretty poorly for future demand.
also:
anyone else notice that retail sales fell for the second straight month? (and are well over 5% off 2008 nominal (much less real) peaks still)
Benji,
"We need Fed quantitative easing--we especially need to avoid deflation in real estate markets."
But you want to do away with the home mortgage deduction? What do you think that will do to the real estate market?
New and existing home sales dropped after the tax subsidies expired, suggesting price weakness ahead. According to Reinhart and Rogoff, housing typically takes 6 years to recover, peak to trough, after a financial crisis like the one we're coming out of; yet equities rise above pre-crisis levels in 2-3 years. Take-away: housing prices can continue to drop to 2013 (if this recover is typical for a financial crisis), but that doesn't mean the stock market won't have a V shaped recovery.
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