Increasing number of buyers find affordable houses as prices stabilize, interest rates drop.

Stable prices and low mortgage rates have made Ventura County homes affordable to more families this year than last, particularly on the west side where builders are constructing smaller, less-expensive homes than they were last year.

As a result, 20 percent of Ventura County households qualified for the 80 percent, $240,000 mortgage, at 8.5 percent interest, needed to buy the $299,900 median-priced Ventura County home at the end of first quarter 1992, according to data gathered by Encino-based The Meyers Group, a real estate-oriented market research firm. It takes an annual household income of $72,000 to qualify for the $1,845.40 monthly payment on such a mortgage, according to data gathered from the California Association of Realtors and The Meyers Group.

The 20 percent Ventura County housing affordability factor for the first three months of 1992 was up from 12 percent in first quarter 1991 when the median sales price for detached homes in Ventura County was $313,950, according to The Meyers Group.

New-home construction is slow in eastern Ventura County cities such as Simi Valley. By contrast, construction and sales are picking up in Oxnard, Moorpark and Camarillo because developers are building condominiums and small detached homes, according to Meyers.

From January through March, 249 new homes sold throughout Ventura County, up from 170 in fourth quarter 1991 but down from 313 in first quarter 1991, according to Meyers figures.

Large Ventura County homes aren't selling unless builders discount them heavily. For example, Oxnard-based homebuilder KNM Development Co. had no luck selling 21 homes it built in Pepper Tree, a detached-home community in Santa Rosa Valley in eastern Ventura County. Sized at 3,215 to 4,015 square feet, the homes originally were priced at $600,000 to $680,000 but KNM sold only two in the first four months of 1992. Accordingly, Chairman Ernie Mansi held an auction in mid-April and sold the 19 remaining homes for $420,000 to $530,000.

"The market is horrible," Mansi said. He said he will build homes on the nine remaining Santa Rosa Valley lots, then gear up to build 147 affordable homes in the city of Ventura in the next two months. Models will range in size from 1,400 to 1,700 square feet in the next two months and sell for $177,000 to $200,000, Mansi said.

Other homebuilders also have had trouble unloading higher-priced homes. It took San Diego-based R.B. McComic Inc. 18 months to sell the last 15-home phase of its Bridlewood in Santa Rosa. Homes there ranged in size from 2,350 to 3,250 square feet and sold for $430,000 to $495,000. McComic company is not building homes in Ventura County at this time.

Westlake Village-based Grupe Co. has adjusted to market trends and is building affordable homes in east Ventura County at Country Faire, a 61-home Fillmore detached home project where models range in size from 1,740 to 2,050 square feet and are priced from $200,000 to $230,000. Grupe averages a sale a week, said Jeff Logan, a Meyers market analyst.

Grupe also is building homes at Kensington Park between Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks. The builder sold 38 of the 68 homes released there in first quarter 1992. Homes are priced from $325,000 to $380,000, according to Meyers figures.

Agoura Hills-based Braemar Homes sold 65 of its 80 single-family homes at Braemar At North Ranch in the portion of Westlake Village that is inside Ventura County. Westlake Village Braemar Senior Vice President Bob Kleinman said Braemar will start building 27 single-family homes at Braemar Camarillo in Camarillo this summer. Models will range in size from 2,600 to 2,800 square feet. They will be priced from $395,000 to $475,000, Kleinman said.

"We know homes in that price range in Ventura County have sold slowly in the past. But the Los Angeles riots have increased the demand for that product type," Kleinman said.

Santa Monica-based Watt Industries also is bucking the trend toward affordable housing and is building 32 single-family homes in Moorpark, said Marc Zaffina, manager of Watts' Ventura County operations.

"We'll sell homes that average 3,300 square feet in size for the high $400,000s to the high $500,000s. That's more than the average and median sales prices there but you have to remember, that (industry sales) data includes a lot of condominiums and entry-level housing," Zaffina said.

Watt hopes to get final approval from Moorpark city officials in early July and move ahead with construction by the end of July.

Newport Beach-based J.M. Peters Inc. is building single-family homes priced from the high $300,000s to the high $400,000s at Autumn Ridge in Simi Valley. The homes range in size from 2,600 to 3,600 square feet, according to Meyers figures.

Shea Homes also is busy in Simi Valley. The builder has sold 61 of the 116 detached units it is building in The Legacy Collection at Wood Ranch, said Frank Sands, vice president of Shea Homes's Walnut-based Southern California division. Models range in size from 3,500 to 4,100 square feet and are priced from the low $400,000s to the mid $500,000s.

Haseko/Stone hasn't sold any of the eight homes it has built in its first phase at Bridgehaven, an executive home community in Westlake Village. Homes are priced from $1 million to $1.2 million.

Los Angeles-based Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. is building single-family homes and condominiums in Oxnard. Its California Lighthouse, a detached home community, sold faster than any of its competitors there, 58 units in first quarter 1992, according to Meyers.

Kaufman & Broad is building condos in Oxnard and has sold 90 of 265 condominiums at California Cove. Bernie Sandalow, K&B's spokesman, said the condos are priced between $140,000 and $186,000. That's exceptional as condo sales throughout Ventura County have declined steadily for the past three years.

Ventura County builders sold 532 units in 1989. Condo sales dropped to 390 in 1990 and slumped to 291 in 1991, according to Meyers. Slow sales were due to lack of affordable condominiums, Meyers reported.

Los Angeles-based Pardee Construction Co. will build detached homes ranging in size from 1,900 to 2,700 square feet on 100 lots it bought from California Federal Bank at the intersection of Vineyard Avenue and Ventura Road in Oxnard. Pardee Ventura County Project Manager Bill Teller said sales are slow.

"Buyers are mostly interested in the condominiums that start at about $150,000 and single-family homes that sell from the low $200,000s," he said. Few homes priced over $300,000 sell, Teller said. Pardee has built 2,500 Ventura County units (houses, condos and apartments), mostly in Camarillo, since 1969, he said.

Irvine-based Wilma Pacific Co. is closing down operations throughout Southern California. It sold 64 of 67 condominiums released at the end of March at its Windrose development in the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village market. The homes, 1,542 to 1,680 square feet, sold for $220,000 to $227,000, according to Meyers.

Grupe's Kensington Park sold 38 of 68 condominiums it finished in the first three months of 1992. Prices range from $325,000 to $330,000, according to Meyers' figures.