January’s 15,361 sales mark the highest total for that month since 18,128 sales in January 2007. However, last month’s tally was 14.4 percent below the average number of sales for a January – 17,938 – since 1988.
Last month the sales pattern shifted a bit, with a greater portion of transactions involving distressed properties and lower-cost inland homes. Meanwhile, sales in many pricier areas lost some of the steam they had built in recent months, though high-end sales still outpaced the year-ago level.
Foreclosure resales – houses and condos sold in January that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – made up 42.1 percent of all Southland resales, up from 39.6 percent in December but down from 56.4 percent in January 2009. Foreclosure resales hit a high of 56.7 percent last February, then tapered or leveled off month-to-month until they rose slightly in December, then again last month.
The rise in foreclosure resales helped push sales of homes priced below $300,000 up to 55 percent of all transactions last month, compared with 51.3 percent in December and 60 percent a year earlier. In the mid- to high-end, $500,000-plus home sales fell to 18.5 percent of all transactions, down from 20.6 percent in December but up from 13.6 percent in January 2009.
Over the last decade, $500,000-plus sales made up an average of 26 percent of monthly sales. Just before the credit crunch hit in August 2007, making larger “jumbo” mortgages more expensive and harder to obtain, $500,000-plus sales represented just over half of Southland transactions.
“The January stats underscore just how atypical this market remains. A huge chunk of what’s selling is still distressed. Investors and first-time buyers continue to dominate many areas, while the move-up market has yet to kick in. For many, the financing to buy high-end homes remains difficult, if not impossible, to obtain,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
“High-end sales aren’t nearly as sluggish as a year ago, but they lost traction over the holidays, which can be seen in the January closing data,” he said. “Whether significant new patterns are emerging in the market is unclear. We try not to over-analyze one month’s data, and historically January and February haven’t been the best indicators for the year ahead.”
As we approach another "Spring house selling and buying season", homeowners in Arcadia have much to be optimistic about. If you are the seller, and you and your Realtor have priced your house and property commensurate with local market pricing, you should not be concerned about what the numbers are in other Southern California regions. You will be able to sell your house in a relatively short period of time.
