VALLEY'S HOMES SITTING ON THE SHELF INVENTORY BALLOONS AS SALES FALL AGAIN.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Staff Writer

San Fernando Valley homes sales fell for the seventh consecutive month during April and inventory ballooned 142 percent as the market continued softening, a trade group reported Wednesday.

Those two factors finally took some steam out of prices with last month's 9.4 percent gain the first single digit increase since a 5.4 percent increase in January of 2001, said the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

Last month consumers bought 926 previously owned homes, 18.6 percent fewer than a year ago and 3.6 percent fewer than in March. Sales have now been under the 1,000 mark every month since last October.

That's the longest period since a 20 months string of sub 1,000 transactions from September 1995 to April of 1997.

Industry executives and analysts say the market is just moving from hot to normal.

``It's certainly not a doom and gloom market like some people would like you to believe,'' said Jim Link, the association's executive vice president.

In April the median price, the point at which half the homes cost more and half less, gained an annual $52,000 to $605,000 and fell 1.6 percent from March. So far this year the median has ranged from a record $615,000 in March to a low of $591,000 in February.

At month's end there were 3,660 houses for sale across the Valley, up from 2,147 a year ago. Add condominiums and inventory totaled 4,950 properties, up 162.3 percent from a year ago.

That represents a 3.8-month supply at the current sales pace, much better than the record low of a one-month supply a year ago. But it's still short of the five- to six-month supply considered normal.

Nevertheless, it's giving buyers more leverage to make a deal than they had just a few months ago.

``Compared to what we've experienced in recent years its a lot but it's nowhere near what you would consider a glut on the market,'' Link said.

The condominium market behaved in similar fashion last month. Consumers bought 364 condos, down an annual 18.9 percent and they slipped 0.8 percent from March.

The median price rose 11.9 percent to $386,000 and it fell 3.3 percent from the prior month.

This was the second report in two days that showed weaker price appreciation than in the past and sales under their year-ago level.

Daniel Blake, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge, said that prices are now softening along with sales.

But the economy and demand are still strong so it's not likely that the residential real estate market will collapse like it did in the early 1990s.

``I don't see any major movement down. There's no reason for that,'' Blake said.

greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com

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SOURCE: Southland Regional Association of Realtors

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist