California Statewide March Home Sales

April 15, 2010

An estimated 37,295 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 32.7 percent from 28,111 in February, and up 3.0 percent from 36,215 in March 2009. California sales for the month of March have varied from a low of 24,565 in 2008 to a peak of 68,848 in 2005, while the average is 44,486. MDA DataQuick's statistics go back to 1988.

The median price paid for a home last month was $255,000, up 2.4 percent from $249,000 in February, and up 14.3 percent from $223,000 in March a year ago. The year-over-year increase was the fifth in a row, following 27 months of year-over-year declines. The median peaked at $484,000 in early 2007 and hit a post-boom low of $221,000 last April.

Of the homes that resold last month, 40.5 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was down from 44.3 percent in February and down from 56.7 percent in March a year ago. The last time foreclosures resales were lower than last month was in November 2009, when they were 40.1 percent of the resale market.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,091. That was up from $1,068 in February, and up from $958 in March a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month's mortgage payment was 49.1 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 58.7 percent below the current cycle's peak in June 2006.

MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is off its peaks reached in the past two years but remains high by historical standards. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, cash and non-owner occupied buying remains above average, MDA DataQuick reported.

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