Area home sales level, report says

Even as the Southern California real estate market continues its prolonged slump, home sales in Newport-Mesa remain stable, according to statistics released Tuesday.

Home sales in the Southland are the slowest they’ve been since 1995, according to a report issued Tuesday by DataQuick, a San Diego-based statistical firm. The number of houses sold throughout the region in July was 27.4% less than 12 months ago, while Orange County saw a 19.8% drop.

Many real estate agents have credited the drop to rising prices and an increasing number of foreclosures that have left some wary of investing in a house.

On the whole, though, housing sales have actually improved throughout Newport-Mesa. Some neighborhoods saw fewer home sales last month than in July 2006, but DataQuick numbers showed that the two cities combined had 124 home transactions last month — 10 more than they had a year ago.

“The Costa Mesa-Newport Beach area is an extremely desirable place to live and continues to be,” said Galel Fajardo, a broker for the Coast Mortgage Group and an affiliate member of the Newport Beach Assn. of Realtors. “When it comes to the data, real estate has always been cyclical. There are going to be fast times and slow times.”

Newport-Mesa saw a little of both in the last year. Corona del Mar saw its number of transactions leap from eight to 18 between July 2006 and last month, while Newport Coast plunged from 12 to five.

Median sale prices fell in most areas, but the Balboa Peninsula area enjoyed an increase from $1.38 million to $2.3 million.

Valerie Torelli, a real estate agent from Costa Mesa, said her firm had kept pace with its totals from a year ago. She acknowledged, however, that the nationwide drought in the housing market had made sales more difficult at times, since many buyers felt less inclined to take a risk.

“You have to work harder, and you have to work smarter,” she said. “It takes a while longer for buyers to make up their minds because there is so much inventory.”

However, Joseph Miner, the president of All Cities Realty in Costa Mesa, said most of the brokers he knew were struggling to complete sales.

“I don’t know what the numbers show, but the market itself is very slow,” he said. “Basically, if you talk to any real estate agents or brokers across the coast, it’s slow. They’ll tell you the phones don’t ring.”