by Calculated Risk on 8/14/2007 03:42:00 PM

From DataQuick: Southland home sales slowest since 1995

Southern California home sales remained at their lowest level since the mid 1990s last month ... The median price paid for a home inched back up to a peak first reached in March, tugged up by sales in high-end markets, ...

A total of 17,867 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was down 11.4 percent from 20,166 for the previous month, and down 27.4 percent from 24,614 for July last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Last month's sales were the slowest for any July since 1995, when 16,225 homes sold, the lowest for any July in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988. The strongest July was in 2003, when 38,996 homes sold. The July sales average is 26,829.
...
When adjusted for shifts in market mix (i.e. fewer lower-cost homes selling now), year-over-year price changes went negative in January and are now roughly three percent below year-ago levels. The declines are in the lower half of the market, while prices are flat or even increasing in the upper half of the market.
...
Foreclosure resales accounted for 8.3 percent of July's sales activity, up from 7.7 percent in June, and up from 2.0 percent in July of last year. Foreclosure resales do not yet have a marketwide effect on prices, although pockets of foreclosure discounts appear to be emerging in some local Inland Empire and High Desert markets.