San Fernando Valley sees record-low home sales—even as prices drop (Santa Clarita: for sale, real estate)

[jm1982]

Wow only 266 houses sold in the SFV the whole month of February

Prices also down 6.1% versus Feb 2018

—-
In February, buyers purchased just 266 single-family houses in the entire region, according to a new report from the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. That’s the lowest number of sales recorded in any month since the organization began keeping track in 1985. It’s also the first time fewer than 300 houses in the area have sold during an entire month-long period.

Those low sale figures came in spite of a significant drop in prices. February’s median sale price for single-family homes was $657,000, down a whopping 6.1 percent since February 2018, and more than $50,000 below the area’s record-high price of $708,000, set in May of last year.

That’s only the third time home prices in the Valley have dropped year-over-year since the end of the Great Recession.

https://la.curbed.com/2019/3/21/1827...es-house-sales

[Dave Coe]

The urban core is rapid gentrifying and upper middle class people are moving to places like Ventura County but it seems that the inner suburbs are missing out.

[DabOnEm]

Beautiful. Hope it continues to stay this way so I can buy cheaper.

[SoCal25]

There are headwinds for sure, interest rates though declining again were up and the tax changes did no favors to California buyers who were used to factoring interest and property tax write offs on their taxes to make the bitter pill of buying a 50 year old ranch home in a mediocre neighborhood with marginal schools and woeful commutes for $700K go down just a little easier.

[ryanms3030]

Jan-Feb are historically the lowest months for home sales. Mortgage rates just hit 1 year low and are expected to go even lower by the peak summer home sales. If we don't see a lot of action this summer then I'd be shocked

[nightlysparrow]

Half the country is dealing with snow or floods. They can't move now. Bet we will see a lot of "Moving to California" posts come early summer.

[MuscleCar]

I have zero doubt prices will be higher by Halloween than they are today.

[Astral_Weeks]

Curbed is generally a good publication but this particular article is pretty bad. All text and no tables or charts showing historical sales, sales prices or historical months supply.

There is no mention of the price per square foot or the size of the homes sold this year vs. last year.

Also, one month does not make a trend. Yes, sales have been declining in recent months but that alone does not spell disaster. And February 2019 was one of the rainiest and coldest on record.

Finally, the author mentions the increase in inventory which is true but fails to mention that active listings represent just a 3.2 months supply. Would be nice to see the historical data on months supply for the SFV.

Typically, a market that favors sellers has less than 6 months of supply, while more than 6 months of supply indicates an excess of homes for sale that favors buyers.

Here is the historical sales and price data from the SF Valley Realtor Association:

SRAR.com | The Voice for Real Estate in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys

[Cloudwalker]

Interest rates probably played a part too. Presumably many/most of the sales that were final in February were initiated in November/December when interest rates were at their highest in 8 years. No doubt that would have had a dampening effect on sales activity. Plus all the people holding off buying, hoping prices drop because of the rate increase/nervous about their economic future.

[saimamom]

Well the Woolsey Fire doesn't make this area look too attractive to me. We did get plenty of rain that brought all the green back. But the low sales are probably just one of those trends. It will swing back. It's always in cycles. Good time to buy!