Home sales in the Santa Clarita area are starting to pick up.

Santa Clarita’s home sales are picking up somewhat, with more homes going into escrow than earlier this year. Many of these are short sales (pre-foreclosures) and REO’s (bank owned) homes that have finally been approved by the banks.

Below is a table of closed escrows by area, including Canyon Country, Castaic, Newhall, Saugus, Stevenson Ranch and Valencia, on a month-by-month basis through April 30, 2008. While most areas have shown an increase in closed sales from January-February to the March-April timeframe, there is not an upwards trend overall from March to April. These numbers are per the MLS, and thus will exclude any new home sales as well as sales that have not yet been updated on the MLS with sales data.

On the short sale (pre-foreclosure) front, we’re seeing more homes going into escrow than before. This is a good sign for a few reasons: It means that both owner-occupied buyers and investors are buying again; banks are finally approving these short sales; and it means that the inventory of pre-foreclosure homes is declining. Banks are learning to be more efficient at the short sale process, with some banks replacing low-trained task-oriented personnel (think DMV-type employees) with higher-trained personnel capable of making decisions.

Those who are hoping for a more "normal" real estate market to return should start seeing some light at the end of the tunnel as the distressed properties (short sales and REO’s) continue to be sold. Statistics from Property Shark show that the number of new foreclosures, as measured by the number of homes auctioned at trustee sales each month, have been declining significantly throughout the Los Angeles County area.

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