SANTA MONICA PROPERTY SNAPSHOT – MAY 2010

By Jodi Summers

As the new homebuyer’s tax credit era draws to an end, it may go down in history as a concept that revived the residential housing market. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the group, said the federal tax credit that was to expire at the end of this month had been a “resounding success.”

To keep the momentum rolling, California is now offering a statewide credit, for as much as $10,000 for first-time buyers and those purchasing newly built homes, still a weak point in the market. But for the most part, the downward spiral of 2008-2009 has ended, and now, in the L.A. area, home sales and prices are in a slow rise up from the bottom. Around Southern California, DataQuick news reports that, “The market is still tilted toward low-cost distress sales, but not by as much as previously.”

In Santa Monica, comparing prices over the past two years, the median sold price is up 12%, with the current average selling price $ 910,000.

“I'm fairly sanguine, frankly,” said Michael D. Larson, a housing and interest-rate analyst with Weiss Research. “While the credit expires April 30, more forces are at work here. Home prices are now reasonable in many parts of the country, and financing costs remain low.”

“It’s a reflection of just how grim things got, that we’ve now had almost two years of sales gains and we’re still 18% below the sales average. The market won’t rebalance until mortgage lending patterns normalize, and that’s just not happening yet. Some of the best deals out there right now are happening when the buyer comes in with cash,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

Locally, for the past two years, the number of for sale properties is up 10% and the number of sold properties has not changed.

Last month sales of homes priced at $500,000 or more made up 19.4% of all Southland transactions, compared with 18.5% in February and 14.9% in March 2009. Over the past five years, $500,000-plus deals averaged 35% of monthly sales, while over the past 10 years they averaged 26% of all transactions…and that would be why the average months supply of inventory in Santa Monica is down -2.7% to just over four months – 3.7 months is parity in the marketplace.

Absentee buyers – mostly investors and some second-home purchasers – bought 21.3% of the homes sold in March. Buyers who appeared to have paid all cash – meaning there was no indication that a corresponding purchase loan was recorded – accounted for 27.1% of March sales. In February it was a revised 30.0% – an all-time high. The 22-year monthly average for Southland homes purchased with cash is 13.8%.

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http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2010/News/California/Southern-CA/RRSCA100413.aspx

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-socal-home-sales,0,849872.story

https://www.terradatum.com/agentmetricsonline/agentmetrics_online.td

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-sales-20100428,0,7766448.story

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2010/04/us-sales-of-previously-owned-homes-rise-68-in-march.html

https://www.terradatum.com/agentmetricsonline/agentmetrics_online.td?__m_sid=121