OC Home Prices See Modest Climb as Sales Drop Sharply

The median price of a home in Orange County was $562,500 last month, up 2.3 percent from $550,000 in January 2014, a real estate information service announced today. However, the number of homes sold dropped by 10.1 percent, from 2,205 in January 2014 to 1,982 last month.

A total of 13,560 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, according to CoreLogic DataQuick. That was down 29.4 percent from 19,205 in December and down 6.3 percent from 14,471 in January 2014.

The median price of a home in Los Angeles County rose by 12.2 percent in January, compared with the same month a year ago, while the number of homes sold fell by 3.6 percent.

According to CoreLogic DataQuick, the median price of a Los Angeles County home was $460,000 last month, up from $410,000 in January 2014. A total of 4,738 homes were sold in the county, down from 4,913 during the same month the previous year.

The median price for a Southern California home was $409,000 in January, down 1.4 percent from $415,000 in December and up 7.6 percent from $380,000 in January 2014.

“The January and February statistics are always interesting, and sometimes a bit strange, but they’re not necessarily a good indication of what’s to come,” said Andrew LePage, CoreLogic DataQuick analyst. “That’s largely because many traditional buyers and sellers drop out of the housing market during the holidays and mid-winter, and therefore don’t close deals during those months. In recent years, that’s led to somewhat higher concentrations of investor activity for January and February, and we saw that again last month.

• -City News Service
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