A total of 25,585 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That's virtually unchanged from 25,578 for November, and down 41.1 percent from 43,431 for November 2006. Last month's sales made for the slowest December in DataQuick's records, which go back to 1988. On a year-over-year basis, sales have declined the last 27 months.The median price paid for a home last month was $402,000, down 2.9 percent from $414,000 for the month before, and down 14.8 percent from $472,000 for December a year ago. The median peaked last March/April/May at $484,000.
Much of the drop in median is due slower sales of expensive properties, the result of turmoil in the credit industry. In December 2007 a total of 17,500 California homes were purchased with a "conforming" loan up to $417,000. That was down 29.8 percent from 24,913 for the same month a year earlier. Last month a total of 4,600 California homes were purchased with a "jumbo" loan of more than $417,000. That was down 69.8 percent from 15,227 for December 2006.
The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,878. That was down from $1,951 in November, and down from $2,160 for December a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are 11.4 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 23.5 percent below the current cycle's peak in June last year.
DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers cover all sales, new and resale, houses and condos.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is at record levels, financing with adjustable-rate mortgages or with multiple mortgages has dropped sharply. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity is edging up, DataQuick reported.
