California Home Sales Highest Since 2006, Affordability Twice As High

The California housing market heated uprna little more in May with resales of houses and condominiums risingrnby 8.3 percent from resales in April. A total of 42,293 units soldrnduring the month compared to 39,051 in April and 41,790 in May 2012,rna 1.2 percent increase.</p

DataQuick said that the numbers werernthe strongest for any May since 2006 when 54,099 homes were sold. May sales have ranged from a high of 67,078 in 2005 to a low ofrn32,223 ten years earlier. Reaching back to 1988, sales for the monthrnhave averaged 46,471, 9.0 percent higher than the most recent figure.</p

Home prices are also increasingrnrapidly. May was the 15^th consecutive month that thernstate had seen an increase in median prices on an annual basis andrnlast month’s prices were up 25.9 percent from one year earlier,rnrising from $270,000 in May 2012 to $340,000. The median marked anrnincrease of 4.9 percent from the April $324,000 price. The last timernhome prices were higher was in April 2008 when the median wasrn$354,000. </p

Sales of foreclosed properties (REO) asrna share of all home sales fell to 11.4 percent in May, down from 13.4rnpercent in April and 28.5 percent a year earlier. REO salesrnrepresented 58.8 percent of home sales in February 2009. Anotherrn17.7 percent of sales were short sales, unchanged from April, andrndown from 23.7 percent in May 2012.

The typical mortgagernpayment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last monthrnwas $1,227. Adjusted for inflation, this was 56.8 percent below thern2006 peak of the current cycle, though rates have likely decreased affordability since the time of the data collection.

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