Home Sales Still Flat, Realtors Say

Home sales in Simi Valley and Moorpark remained flat last year, lagging far behind the rest of the county, according to a new report.

While 12% more homes sold countywide in 1994 than the year before, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Santa Rosa Valley homeowners reported selling about the same number of dwellings as in 1993, the Simi Valley-Moorpark Assn. of Realtors reported.

The 1,735 home sales last year were only nine more than in 1993.

By contrast, 9,919 homes were sold in Ventura County in 1994, up 1,074 in a year.

The slight increase represents the fourth year in a row that home sales have increased in the Simi Valley-Moorpark area. But, as with the rest of the county, home prices dropped for the fourth consecutive year.

The average price of a Simi Valley-area house dropped to $215,533 from $218,034, and the typical sales price has now fallen $27,980 since 1990.

Rising interest rates to blame for the stagnant numbers, said Shanon Wold, president of the realtors’ association.

“Six months of interest rate increases did what the earthquake couldn’t,” she said Monday. “It slowed to a trickle what had been a rising, rushing stream of first-time home buyers hoping to take advantage of the best resale prices since 1988.”

In 1988, the average home sold for $193,552.

Real estate agents sold 124 properties in December, down 35% from December of 1993, when 190 transactions occurred.

Simi Valley properties sold for an average of $183,490 each, while the average home in Wood Ranch fetched $250,872 and Moorpark $207,686. The average home in the Santa Rosa Valley sold for $493,534.