Demand for Costlier Properties Grows, but Total Sales Fell in February for the Second Straight Month
(…) California’s median home price rose 11.2% in February from February 2009, although home sales in the state slipped for the second consecutive month compared with a year earlier, according to a report released Thursday by MDA DataQuick, a La Jolla, Calif., housing-data provider.
The median home price increased to $249,000 in February from $224,000 a year earlier, DataQuick said. The median price rose 0.8% from January 2010. Home sales in the state fell 3.8% in February from a year earlier to 28,111 sales, but were up 0.9% from January 2010, DataQuick said.(…)
The increase in the statewide median price—the biggest year-over-year jump since March 2006—partially reflected a shift in the types of homes being sold in the state, as fewer foreclosures and stiff competition for bargains ate up inventory at the market’s lower end, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. (…)
"The rebound in prices is artificial," boosted by federal and state efforts to stimulate demand among buyers and stem foreclosures, said Sam Khater, a senior economist at First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., research firm.
While the percentage of existing homes sold last month that had been foreclosed on in the prior year fell to 44.3% from an all-time high of 58.8% in February 2009, it edged up from 43.8% in January 2010, DataQuick said.
Meanwhile, default notices, the first step in the foreclosure process, jumped 19.7% in February from January, though they were down 37.7% from February 2009, according to a report released earlier this month by research firm ForeclosureRadar.com.
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