HOME PRICES HIT RECORD IN VALLEY REALTORS SAY MARKET SLOW BUT `HEALTHIER'.

Byline: EUGENE TONG  Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The median price of a single-family home in the Santa Clarita Valley rallied in April to a record $643,000 after dipping earlier in the year, a monthly real estate survey said Wednesday.

Still, sales activity continued to slow, with the number of closed escrows down nearly 37 percent and more than 1,900 active listings at the end of the month -- nearly quadruple from a year ago, according to the Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

``We've seen an increase in listings as sales are taking longer to complete,'' Peggy Muller, the group's Santa Clarita division president, said in a statement. ``It may seem dramatic because listings are rising from years of record-low levels.''

The 237 single-family homes sold in April pushed median price up 16.5 percent from a year ago, and 7.2 percent higher -- $43,000 -- compared to March. It surpassed the previous record of $620,000 set in January.

For condominiums, the median price for the 129 homes sold was $387,000, about 17.3 percent higher from a year ago, but down half a percent, or $2,000, from March. That price also peaked in January, when the median was $397,000.

Jim Link, the association's executive vice president, said he believes median prices will hold despite slowing sales and rising inventory. Though expect annual price gains of only 5 percent to 8 percent, he warned, compared to the 17-26 percent range seen in the last four years.

``The market in the median prices is definitely going to stay healthy,'' he said. ``What we're seeing is a cooling off in a market that is the hottest, tightest market we have in history.''

Delores Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast at University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate, sees two forces working to stabilize prices for a so-called ``soft landing.''

Rising interest rates and high prices may mean fewer buyers in the market, but housing demand in Southern California remains strong. Conway added that she does not expect a run on the market despite more inventory, with sellers holding back because they can't afford to upgrade to larger homes.

``We're seeing continued price increase year over year,'' she said. ``But we're seeing huge volume declines -- that in part is kind of holding up the market. A lot of people who want to put their home on the market saw the market and held off.''

Link agreed. ``Santa Clarita is such a desirable community to life in that we fully expect strong demand to keep prices rising even as inventory grows,'' Link said. ``However, it's likely that the double-digit price increases so common during the sellers' market will give way to a single-digit pace.''

Residential real estate experts believe a five- to six-month supply represents a market where neither buyer nor seller has an advantage in negotiations.

The 1,929 listings from April is equal to a 5.3-month supply at the current pace of sale -- a significant increase from a year ago when there were only 555 listings, or less than a one-month supply.

The number of pending escrows -- a measure of future sales -- was 347 at the end of April. It's down 61.9 percent from a year ago.

Conway said it now takes about three months to sell a home -- a less intense market than a year ago, though not exactly the bottom falling out as it did in the recession of the early 1990s.

``I remember when the market was 24 months,'' she said. ``As long as the economy remains healthy and the Southern California economy has been healthy. It's when people are losing their jobs that you see a lot of homes on the market.

``The slower times are healthier times. There's less speculation and more stability. As long as we don't see a lot of foreclosure from the flexible financing, it would be a soft landing.''

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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