SoCal Home Sales Fall, Median Prices Rise

Declining housing inventories and deadline for federal tax credit spur home sales.

With the declining inventory of homes available for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley, it’s no surprise that the number of homes sold in the Southern California region fell during August while the median prices rose.

Santa Clarita real estate stats for August 2009 show that we have less than one month’s worth of inventory available for homebuyers to choose from, which creates a competitive situation and thus higher prices as homebuyers bid against each other for the available homes.

According to Dataquick, 21,502 new and resale homes sold in the SoCal Region, which includes Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties, during August 2009.  This number is down 10.8 percent from 24,104 in July 2009, and up 11.0 percent from 19,366 in August 2008. On top of this, August 2009 was the 14th month in a row with a year-over-year sales increase.

Although the sale of foreclosures (bank-owned or REO homes) accounted for 38.8 percent of the August resales activity, it was down from 40.7 percent in July and down from 45.5 percent in August 2008. However, this was partly due to the increase in the number of non-foreclosure resales.

So-called jumbo loans, or loans above $417,000, were used for 15.6 percent of the August 2009 SoCal home purchases, up from a low of 9.3 percent in January 2009. This percentage was as high as 40 percent of all home purchases before the credit crunch hit two years ago.

Homebuyers are also scrambling to take advantage of the $8,000 federal tax credit, which expires shortly, and this too is creating more demand for housing in the Santa Clarita Valley. The credit expires on November 30, 2009, and is only valid if you close escrow on or before that date. If you open escrow prior to November 30 but don’t close escrow by then, you will not be eligible for the credit. With that in mind, if you’re wanting to get your $8,000 in Federal funds, you’ll need to be looking for your home now in order to close escrow on time to collect that refund!

Santa Clarita Realtor Linda Slocum is a Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) specializing in Santa Clarita residential real estate and short sales. You can reach her at 661.670.0349 or at Linda@SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com. To search for Santa Clarita homes, use our neighborhood search tools or visit HoneyStartPacking.com.