LA County Home Sales See Slight Increase

Home sales in Los Angeles County are seeing a slight increase, according to December statistics.

According to data from the La Jolla-based DataQuick, Los Angeles County home sales rose by 0.8 percent, an improvement compared to the same month a year ago, when prices dipped by 7.6 percent.

Roughly the same amount of homes switched hands last month, with a total of 6,591 homes in December, compared to 6,536 in December 2010.

The median price of homes in Los Angeles County was $305,000, down from $330,000 in December 2010.

In Orange County, however, home sales dipped from a year ago, with 2,572 homes sold in December. This is down 6.1 percent from a year ago, when 2,739 were sold. The median home price in Orange County was $400,000.

A total of 19,247 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in December, according to DataQuick. That was up 14 percent from 16,884 in November, but down 1.4 percent from 19,528 in December 2010.

The median price for a Southern California home was $270,000 last month, down 1.8 percent from $275,000 in November and down 6.9 percent from $290,000 in December 2010, according to DataQuick.

According to the California Association of Realtors, December's home sales in  the state were at their highest level since January 2011, and up for the third straight month.

“With the economy slowly improving, home buyers, investors and first-
 time buyers alike took advantage of affordable interest rates and made a push to close escrow by the end of year,'' said CAR President LeFrancis Arnold.

“Robust sales over the past few months signal the housing market is treading above water on its own in the first full year without the government stimulus that has helped housing in the last couple of years.''

- Compiled from City News Service