Local Home Buyers Enjoy Lower Mortgage Payments

There’s a bright side to Ventura County’s continuing real estate malaise--home buyers today are faced with mortgage payments that are fully one-third less than they were five years ago.

Two factors--lower selling prices and reduced interest rates--make it much easier to buy a home in the county in 1995 than it was in 1990, according to a study by DataQuick Information Systems.

New buyers’ monthly payments for principal and interest currently average $1,063, DataQuick reports. That’s 33.8% less than the $1,607 required in 1990, before prices and interest rates started to drop.

The reporting service conducted its study based on new buyers making a 20% down payment on a median-priced house.

By comparison, payments are 34.3% lower in Los Angeles County than they were five years ago. Statewide, the reduction is 28%.

In some areas, the reduction is much less pronounced. Payments are down only 18.6% in Marin County, for instance.

As a result of the lower payments, many more potential homeowners have come into a market that they were previously shut out of, notes Donald L. Cohn, DataQuick’s chief executive. He notes, however, that the window may be shutting.

“All indications are that sales are picking up significantly, particularly in the entry-level markets,” he said. Presumably, if that happens, prices will start to rebound.

Selling prices of single-family houses in Ventura County averaged $236,000 at the end of June. That was 19.7% below the average of $294,000 in June, 1990.

As for interest rates, the average for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 7.4% in the most recent three-month period, down from 10.15% five years ago.