Update on Southland Home Prices

Recent data has been published in the LA Times about the increase of home prices in Southern California due to a drop in the number of foreclosures on the market.

This last month, the percentage of foreclosed homes that made up the market accounted for 24.5%. This number is still relatively high; however, it is drastically lower than the highest percentage back in February 2009 which was 56.7% according to author, Alejandro Lazo, from LA Times.

The new data from DataQuick reported that the sales in the region last month were up 7.5% and the median home price increased by 5.3% in comparison to the same month last year.

Now, why are we seeing an increase in home prices? The real estate market is an extremely competitive market right now. Interest rates are at historic lows as well as home prices.

With those two combinations, we always discuss how that makes up a buyers’ market. It is truly in favor of buyers right now and many are taking advantage. Many homes are receiving multiple offers which are helping to increase the value of homes.

Indicators all point towards an improved housing market with fewer foreclosures.

In yesterday’s post, we even discussed how Fannie Mae is implementing new programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure to ensure fewer hit the market.

According to the LA Times article, Alejandro Lazo stated, “California has a much more streamlined way of dealing with foreclosures as it does not require a court order for a home to be repossessed by a lender. That distinction has helped California…bounce back from the mortgage meltdown better than other hard hit states like Florida.”

Overall, we are seeing positive signs as fewer foreclosures are making up the resales in the real estate market. In the Southland we have also seen an increase in median home prices slightly. These are good signs towards improvement, and hoping the trend continues.