4:15pm | California home sales posted a weaker-than-expected performance and declined in February, according to data from the California Association of Realtors. The housing market’s performance will likely vary from city to city, and reports on Long Beach are due out later this week.
California’s poor performance follows three months of sales gains, according to CAR.
Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 497,660 in February, according to CAR. February’s sales were down 9 percent from January and down 4 percent from February 2010.
“With continued concerns about both the economy and housing market, consumers remain tentative moving forward with any home buying plans,” CAR President Beth L. Peerce said in a prepared statement. “Nevertheless, current market conditions and loan rates at some of the lowest of all time continue to present attractive opportunities to those who are in a position to buy.”
A separate report by San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems showed the Southern California region’s housing market was sluggish in February “despite relatively strong demand from investors and others paying cash for homes.” In February there were 14,369 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That figure was down 0.6 percent from January, and down 6.4 percent from February 2010, according to DataQuick.
“The January and February sales data can be interesting, but we always caution that historically they’ve been a poor barometer for the rest of the year. What the past two months do tell us is that lots of people have bet, often with cash, that housing at today’s prices will prove a solid investment,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “This spring we’ll see an infusion into the market of more traditional buyers, who aren’t necessarily purchasing with an investor mindset. If the stars line up right — low prices, low mortgage rates, available credit, higher job growth and higher consumer confidence — we could see sales shoot back up to more normal levels.
“There’s pent-up demand out there,” Walsh continued. “Lots of people have been waiting for the right time to buy. But they’ve got to feel more confident in their jobs, they’ve got to qualify for a loan and, for some, they need to be convinced prices are at or near bottom.”
The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California was $271,320, down 2.8 percent from January, and February’s median was down 2.5 percent from the $278,190 median a year ago, according to the CAR report.
Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 4.95 percent during February 2011, compared with 4.99 percent in February 2010, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 3.35 percent in February 2011, compared with 4.23 percent in February 2010.
The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 64.4 days in February 2011, compared with 39.2 days for the same period a year ago.