Orange County home sales increased 79 percent last month compared with January 2008, the California Association of Realtors reports, while the median price of existing single family homes fell by 32.7 percent — to $423,100.

The county’s median price in January was down 4.4 percent from December; home sales were down 25.9 percent.

Three Orange County cities were among the Top 10 for median sale prices in January: San Clemente, Yorba Linda and Huntington Beach.

Home sales in California were up slightly more than 100 percent in January compared to a year ago, while the median price of an existing single family home fell 40.5 percent, to $254,350, the association says.

“Statewide sales in January edged past the 600,000 threshold for the first time since October 2005,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak.

The numbers show California is working through large numbers of  distressed sales, he says, while affordability in the state’s housing market is at its highest since the beginning of the decade.

The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 2009 would be if sales maintained the January pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.

In addition to the sales of distressed properites, “California’s housing market also is feeling the effects of a drought in the availability of jumbo mortgage loans. said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young.

“Since the start of the credit crisis in 2007, jumbo lending has been severely constrained to the point where markets that rely on jumbo loans experienced a 24 percent year-to-year decline in sales in the month of January,” Appleton-Young said.

Other highlights:

• C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in January 2009 was 6.7 months, compared with 16.6 months (revised) for the same period a year ago.

• Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 5.05 percent during January 2009, compared with 5.76 percent in January 2008, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 4.92 percent in January 2009, compared with 5.23 percent in January 2008.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 49.9 days in January 2009, compared with 70.8 days (revised) for the same period a year ago.

To see the full report, CLICK HERE

Did you miss?

• Calif. gets 11% of HUD quick recovery cash
• Surf City’s million-dollar repos: ‘Palatial’ digs
• Hear how O.C. housing bottom is possible in 2009
• Is a pesky neighbor worth a $451,000 discount?
• Will California foreclosure moratorium work?
• Does housing need economic revival? Or vice versa?
• Listings drop 21% in south coast area since ‘07
• Obama “gets it” and other reactions to his speech
• Obama promises new source for loans
• More homebuilding cuts seen for 2009

Posted in: Home prices • Local-Local • California Association of Realtors • Huntington Beach • san clemente • Yorba Linda |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.