Southland Housing Market Gains
Southern California’s housing market continued to make steady gains last month as economic growth once again combined with moderate interest rates to boost sales and prices.
A total of 26,605 new and resale homes and condominiums sold in Southern California last month, up 6.1% from September 1998, according to Acxiom/DataQuick, a La Jolla-based real estate information service.
Los Angeles County posted the strongest sales gain with an 8.9% increase, while the number of homes that changed hands in Ventura County dipped 1.6%.
The median price for a Southern California home rose 4.9% year-over-year to $194,000 in September. Ventura County boasted the highest median home price last month at $246,000, followed closely by Orange County at $245,000.
Acxiom/DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said he does not expect the recent slump in the stock market to disrupt the region’s housing market in the near future. But if the stock market continues to slide, Karevoll warned it could affect the housing market in disparate ways.
“Stock market turbulence can push people out of the stock market and into homes,” Karevoll said. “Or people can lose money in the stock market that they would have otherwise put into homes. It can go either way.”
The California Assn. of Realtors, meanwhile, is scheduled to release its “California Real Estate Market Forecast: 2000” today during the trade group’s annual meeting in Anaheim.
Southern California home values--when adjusted for shifts in the market mix--are currently rising 8% to 10% annually, Karevoll added. The Southern California region includes Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
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