With record low interest rates a housing recovery appears underway in SLO County.
The median price paid for an existing home in San Luis Obispo County rose 19.4% year over year and up from June of this year as well according to Data Quick. The June 2012 median was $382,50 and rose in July 2012 to $400,000 up from $335,000 in July 2011.
There was also good news on the sales volume – up 9.2% from a year earlier. Sales of new homes in SLO in July was positive as well at 32 compared to just 11 in July 2011 and 15 in June 2012.Condo sales were higher in July at 50 compared to 36 in June and 40 a year earlier.
Five Month Trend
The positive news in SLO County was reflected in statewide figures. The median price paid for a home in California last month was $281,000, up 2.6 percent from $274,000 in June, and up 11.5 percent from $252,000 in July 2011.
Last month’s median was the highest for any month since September 2008, when it was $283,000. July marked the fifth consecutive month in which the state’s median sale price rose year-over-year.
Across California ,home sales rose 13.9 percent from last year at 39,507 homes with the Bay Area up 22%.Sales in Southern California jumped to 20,588 homes, up 13.8 percent from 18,090 homes last year, DataQuick said. This is the seventh straight month that sales climbed year over year.
For the current housing cycle, the median hit a bottom of $221,000 in April 2009, while it peaked at $484,000 in early 2007.
Distressed property sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short sales” – made up 41.0 percent of the state’s resale market last month, down from 43.0 percent the month before and down from 51.8 percent a year earlier.
Even in hard hit Fresno County the median price was up in July 8.5% to $146,500. In Santa Barbara County, the median price rose in July by 4.8% and sales surged 44% from 227 in July 2011 to 327 in July 2012.
Of the existing California homes sold in July, 22.0 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was down from a revised 24.9 percent in June and down from 34.5 percent a year earlier. Last month’s figure was the lowest for any month since foreclosure resales
Watching interest rates , Freddie mac says 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.62 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending August 16, 2012, up from last week when it averaged 3.59 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.15 percent.