“Overall, it’s a fine housing market, with solid improvements in all categories,” said an upbeat Bob Khalsa, president of the SCV Division of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, which keeps the data.
July’s single-family home price was up by 22.9 percent from a year ago and 26.5 percent higher than the modern low of $340,000, set less than two years ago in November 2011.
Condo prices were up a whopping 76.5 percent from their modern low of $170,000, set just a year ago in July 2012.
Relatively few homes have been listed for sale since the start of the recession; at the end of July, the active listings represented a 1.5-month supply. A six-month supply is indicative of a healthy market. Nonetheless, the 492 listings at July 31 represented a slight improvement from the record-low 312 listings in March, SRAR officials said.
Importantly, 76.9% of single-family home resales and 76.1 percent of condo resales (76.6 percent overall) were standard sales, rather than foreclosures or bank-authorized short sales. The figures were 49.3 and 42.4 percent, respectively, as recently as January.
“To have nearly 77 percent of sales going to traditional buyers proves that the local market is on the right track, that distressed sales will continue to diminish. We’re approaching a normal, healthy market,” SRAR CEO Jim Link said.
SCV Home Resale Prices On the Rebound
