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Monday, June 16, 2008

DataQuick: SoCal Sales at Record Low for May

by Calculated Risk on 6/16/2008 01:46:00 PM

From DataQuick: Southland home sales back to record low; median price slips again

Bargain shoppers helped push Southern California home sales higher in May compared with April - a normal, seasonal lift - but it was still the slowest May in more than 20 years. The median price paid fell a record 27 percent from a year ago, the result of sluggish high-end sales, more sellers dropping their asking prices and lenders selling off more of their aggressively priced, repossessed homes.
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Sales of post-foreclosure homes continue to dominate many inland markets. Of all the Southland homes that resold in May, 37.4 percent had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months, compared with a revised 36.2 percent in April and 5.5 percent one year ago. Across the six-county area, these "foreclosure resales" ranged from 25.6 percent of resale activity in Orange County to 56.6 percent in Riverside County.
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Foreclosure activity is at record levels ...
This is an REO market. Most of the sales activity is at the low end, and even the higher end areas are seeing substantial REO sales activity.