Median Southern Calif. home price passes $500,000

By David Streitfeld, Times Staff Writer
12:06 PM PDT, April 12, 2007

The median Southern California home price rose again in March, crossing the $500,000 mark for the first time, a real estate information service reported today.

The median price paid for a home in Southern California last month was $505,000, up 4.6% from March 2006, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems. The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower.

"These numbers are surprising everyone, including us," said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll. "The market has a lot more gas in the tank than anyone expected."

One reason for the rise in the median price is that entry-level sales are dropping faster than move-up homes.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, traditionally a low-price haven, sales dropped nearly 50% from the torrid pace of March 2006. But even there, the median prices edged up, 0 .2% and 1.1% respectively.

Los Angeles County, which is about a third of the Southern California housing market, is also the healthiest. Sales dropped the least here, only 23%, while the median went up the most, 6.3%. The median price in L.A. County is $540,000.

DataQuick president Marshall Prentice said in a statement that the drop in entry-level sales "is part of a normal real estate cycle. That category surged at a later point in time, and is declining at a later point in time. We actually thought this would happen four or five months ago."

Overall sales in March totaled 21,858 new and resale homes in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was down 32.4% from March 2006, and the lowest March total in a decade.

Despite all the housing gloom these days, Karevoll said he was "cautiously optimistic."

He noted, however, that "the relative balance in this housing market is very, very precarious." An uptick in interest rates would easily destroy the equilibrium, he said.

david.streitfeld@latimes.com

Welcome

Thanks for reading this Blog. I'll be sharing news and opinions about the local and national real estate market. Please feel free to send in your opinins and comments on all of my posts.