California December 2009 Home Sales

January 22, 2009

An estimated 37,836 new and resale houses and condos were sold in California last month. That was up 17.6 percent from 32,163 in November and up 47.9 percent from 25,585 for December 2007. Sales have increased on a year-over-year basis for the last six months. California sales for the month of December have varied from last year's low to a peak of 66,503 in 2003, while the average is 44,844. MDA DataQuick's statistics go back to 1988.

The median price paid for a home last month was $249,000, down 3.5 percent from $258,000 for the month before, and down 38.1 percent from $402,000 for December a year ago. Around half the drop in median is due to price depreciation, the other half due to shifts in the types of homes selling, and how those homes are financed.

Of the existing homes sold last month, 57.5 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on. A year ago it was 23.7 percent.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,110. That was down from a revised $1,249 in November, and down from $1,949 for December a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are back to where they were in spring 1996. They are 47.8 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 57.7 percent below the current cycle's peak in June 2006.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity waned in early fall but is edging higher again and remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is at an all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity appears flat, MDA DataQuick reported.