STATE'S HOUSING AFFORDABILITY AT SECOND-LOWEST LEVEL EVER.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Wilcox may refer to: Place names in the United States
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Housing affordability dipped to its second-lowest level ever in California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). last year even though sales made a steep decline and price appreciation slowed dramatically, a trade association said Tuesday. Last year, just 27.l percent of sales were to first-time buyers first-time buyer n → persona que compra su primera vivienda first-time buyer n → personne achetant une maison ou un appartement pour la première fois first-time buyer , slightly better than the record low of 26 percent in 2004, said the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors. First-timers accounted for 30.5 percent of purchases in 2005, the group said. The association called 2006 a transition year; sales and prices both cooled from 2005, one of the best markets ever. ``I don't think there were any big surprises,'' said Leslie Appleton- Young, the association's vice president and chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the . ``I think prices are going to plateau plateau, elevated, level or nearly level portion of the earth's surface, larger in summit area than a mountain and bounded on at least one side by steep slopes, occurring on land or in oceans. out.'' That assumption means that this year's market could look a lot like the last. The survey also found that the share of buyers who used a second mortgage climbed from 38 percent in 2005 to 43 percent in 2006, more than triple the percentage since 2001 and the highest percentage since 1982. The use of alternative loan products also registered a sharp increase. ``Home buyers with zero-down payments increased significantly from 4.5 percent in 2000 to 21.1 percent in 2006,'' said Appleton-Young. Home sales in California fell in 2006 after four years of expansion. Sales in the Bay Area housing market fell at a slightly lower rate than for the state as a whole. Home sales in the 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, region followed the general direction of the state, declining 23 percent from the record level of 2005. Inventory levels in this part of the state nearly tripled from a year ago, to levels in the range of their long-run average. The Central Valley had the largest decline in sales activity among the three regions in California. The statewide median price gains narrowed throughout the year, slowing from a 14 percent year-to-year increase in January 2006 to just under 2 percent as the year drew to a close. ``That's a far cry from the string of double-digit annual percentage gains that prevailed during the first half of this decade,'' said association President Colleen col·leen n. An Irish girl. [Irish Gaelic cailín, diminutive of caile, girl, from Old Irish. Badagliacco. greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3743 |
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