BRIEFCASE MEDIAN EXISTING HOME PRICE SPIKES.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

The median price for existing homes in the Los Angeles area rose 24.5 percent in the fourth quarter last year over 2002, the third-highest increase in the nation, a Realtors group reported Thursday.

The median price for the resale of a home in the Los Angeles area at the end of 2003 was $382,200, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The strongest price increase was in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, where the fourth quarter price of $239,400 rose 28.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the group's survey.

Firm's sales rise on oxygen devices

CHATSWORTH - CHAD Therapeutics Inc. sold more oxygen conservers overseas and domestically, the company reported Thursday in its third quarter earnings report. The respiratory care products developer had revenue of $5.2 million in the quarter, up from $4.98 million in the same period a year ago. Net income rose to $418,000, 4 cents per share, from $228,000, 2 cents per share.

Changing Medicare guidelines may put pressure on the domestic profit margin, the company cautioned, offering guidance of net earnings for fiscal 2004 of between $1.1 million and $1.2 million, or 11 to 12 cents share.

Local company has record gains

CAMARILLO - Electronic Clearing House Inc. reported record first quarter revenues on Thursday, which climbed more than 22 percent from the same time last year. The payment services company had revenue of $11.4 million in the first quarter of 2004, up from $9.3 million in the same period a year ago.

ECHO saw net income of $589,000, 9 cents per share, reversing a loss of $4.5 million, 77 cents per share, in the previous year's period, when it took a one-time charge of $4.7 million for accounting rule changes.

For the year ahead, ECHO expects revenue to grow 15 to 20 percent, with a gross margin between 36 and 38 percent.

Automobile sales decline sharply

WASHINGTON - A steep decline in car buying depressed sales at the nation's retailers by 0.3 percent last month, although consumers continued spending heartily in less expensive ways.

The overall decline - the first since September - was reported by the Commerce Department Thursday. It largely reflected a sharp drop in sales of automobiles. When auto sales - which tend to swing widely from month to month - are removed, sales at all other merchants rose by a strong 0.9 percent in January - the biggest gain in five months.

In other economic news, the Labor Department reported that new claims for unemployment insurance rose last week by a seasonally adjusted 6,000 to 363,000, a two-month high.