June Home Resales In California Slowest Since 1988

Resales of single-family homes and condos posted the slowest June on record last month, according to statistics released Friday morning by real estate data firm DataQuick Information Systems. During June, a total of 35,202 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month — up 6.6 percent from 33,024 in May, but off 8.1 percent from 38,291 for June last year.

Foreclosures continued to dominate the resale landscape, as well. According to DataQuick, of the homes sold in June, 41.9 percent were foreclosure resales, up from a revised 40.1 percent in May and 6.6 percent in June a year ago.

Southern California saw comparatively much more foreclosure resale activity, relative to Northern California; Los Angeles and related areas in the southern part of the state saw foreclosures make up 41.1 percent of all resales, while Northern California saw 28.7 percent of resales represented by foreclosures.

Not surprisingly given the influx of institutional real estate sellers, the median price paid for a home in the Golden State last month was $328,000, down 3.2 percent from $339,000 for the month before, and down 31.5 percent from $479,000 for June a year ago.

Around half the drop in median was due to depreciation, DataQuick said, with the other half due to shifts in the types of homes selling, and how those homes are financed; this is a critical point in assessing true price performance in any local market, and in California, indicates that absolute dearth of lending in the so-called jumbo mortgage market.

For more information, visit http://www.dataquick.com.