HOME PRICES UP 25% IN YEAR MARKET STABILIZING BUT STAYING STRONG.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer The median price of a San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. home surged nearly 25 percent annually in September to $490,000 as sales fell under the year- ago total but still remained strong, an industry tracker reported Thursday. But the market is quite different from two months ago, said the Van Nuys-based Southland south·land or South·land n. A region in the south of a country or an area. south  land·er n.Noun 1. Regional Association of Realtors. In September a 64 percent surge in inventory to 3,563 single-family properties brought equilibrium equilibrium, state of balance. When a body or a system is in equilibrium, there is no net tendency to change. In mechanics, equilibrium has to do with the forces acting on a body. to the market and eased the sticker shock Sticker shock is a United States term for the feeling of surprise experienced by consumers upon finding unexpectedly high prices on the price tags (stickers) of products they are considering purchasing. buyers face when they start house hunting, the association said. Including condominiums, inventory leaped 73.5 percent to 4,616 properties last month. However, it is building off extremely low levels and is not high enough yet to cancel out Verb 1. cancel out - wipe out the effect of something; "The new tax effectively cancels out my raise"; "The `A' will cancel out the `C' on your record" wipe out big annual price gains. During the past 12 months, the median gained $97,000, or 24.7 percent. ``I think we're going to see double-digit price gains continue next year,'' said Jim Link, the association's executive vice president. Sometime next year the rate of appreciation will sink below 20 percent, but it will remain above 10 percent, he said. During September, single-family sales fell 7.7 percent to 1,230 units, the fifth highest ever. The August 2003 total of 1,238 sales was the second highest. ``The transformed market is truly a good thing. It's good for buyers, it's good for sellers and it's good for Realtors,'' Link said. Some price moderation has shown up in the condo market. Last month the median condo price increased 17.4 percent to $305,000. Sales increased 3.1 percent to 426 units. Listing and sales activity is expected to taper off Verb 1. taper off - end weakly; "The music just petered out--there was no proper ending" fizzle, fizzle out, peter out discontinue - come to or be at an end; "the support from our sponsoring agency will discontinue after March 31" 2. on a monthly basis as the market enters its holiday phase in the year's final quarter, Link said. The association's September report is similar in tone to one also released Thursday for Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, by DataQuick Information Systems. It showed that the median price for a home in the six-county area rose an annual 22.1 percent to a record $409,000 in September. Sales fell 8.7 percent to 29,942 units, the third highest for that month since record keeping began in 1988. DataQuick's report includes both new and previously owned homes and condos. In Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County sales fell 7.8 percent to 10,501 units and the median price gained an annual 21.1 percent to $407,000. DataQuick said that indicators of market stress are still largely absent. ``Basically we're seeing what they (Realtors) are seeing, a state of equilibrium to the market. It's not a frenzy Frenzy Beatlemania term referring to the Beatles’ (rock musicians) immense popularity; manifested by screaming fans in the 1960s. [Pop. Culture: Miller, 172–181] Big Bull Market , but it's still strong,'' said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): box Box: PRICE LEAP Source: Southland Regional Association of Realtors Daily News |
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