Home prices smash $600,000 level
O.C. residences sold last month for a median $603,000, an 11.7 percent jump in a year. The rate of increase has slowed from 30 percent in June 2004.
By JEFF COLLINS
The Orange County Register
Orange County's $500,000 housing market became a $600,000 market in June, when the median price of a locally owned home jumped to $603,000, DataQuick Information Systems reported today.
It took 14 months for the typical value of an Orange County condo, townhome and detached house to climb from the half-million-dollar mark to the $600,000 milestone.
The $500,000 level was reached just a year after the median value reached $400,000.
"It's been in the cards for a long time," said John Karevoll, an analyst for DataQuick, a La Jolla company that tracks recorded real estate transactions. "It's happening at a slower pace now than when Orange County hit the $500,000 line ... but it's still going up."
The median price is the figure where half the homes sell for less and half for more.
The median was lower for condos and highest for the limited supply of newly built homes coming on the market.
The median-price condominium sold for $440,000 last month, DataQuick reported. An existing single-family home sold for a median $660,000 and a brand-new home for $753,000.
Overall, the county home price was 11.7 percent higher than a year ago – 26.2 percent for the 363 newly built homes that sold in June.
That appreciation rate is down from the 30 percent level reported for June 2004, DataQuick figures show, perhaps a sign that the rate of price gain is slowing down.
Still, more people also lined up for the privilege of paying those higher prices. In all, 4,898 residences traded hands last month, up 7.7 percent from May's sales figure and up 3.1 percent from June 2004, DataQuick's figures show.
The typical monthly mortgage payment was $2,670, up 17.3 percent from a year earlier.
Local real estate agents and economists say key reasons for why home prices keep setting records include low supplies of homes for sale compared with demand, low mortgage interest rates and continued job growth.
"One word: inventory," said Mike Allen of Allen Realty in Lake Forest. "When you have low inventory (of homes) ... you have multiple offers."
Both sales counts and prices reached new highs across Southern California last month, DataQuick reported. Led by a surge of buying activity in the Inland Empire, sales also topped a monthly record set in 1988, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 35,454 new and resale homes sold in June in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties.
After Orange County, Ventura County had the second-highest median price in the region, $584,000, followed by San Diego County's $493,000, Los Angeles County's $475,000, Riverside County's $393,000 and San Bernardino County's $322,000.
Prices in San Bernardino County had the greatest appreciation, up 30.9 percent, DataQuick reported, followed by Riverside County's 23.2 percent.
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