The median price paid for a Southern California home rose last month for the first time since mid-2007, a real estate information service reported today.
May's median of $249,000 was up less than 1% from $247,000 in April. The modest rise hints at a thaw in the high end of the housing market, where sales have been virtually frozen. Most activity has occurred in the low end of the housing market, as banks unload foreclosed properties at fire-sale prices that have dragged the median down.
The Southland median will rise only when higher-end properties begin to sell. Paradoxically, that means owners of those homes must lower their prices to attract buyer interest.
"As more sellers get realistic, more buyers get off the fence and more lenders offer reasonable terms for high-end purchase financing, we'll see a more normal share of sales in the more established, higher-cost areas that have been nearly comatose," said John Walsh, president of San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
The median price is the level at which half of the homes are sold for higher prices, and half at lower prices.
Sales of deeply discounted, previously foreclosed homes still dominate the market, but their share is receding. In May, foreclosed homes comprised 50% of sales, down from 54% in April and a peak of 57% in February.
May's median price bounce marked the fifth straight month the Southern California price median has held steady at roughly $250,000. The April-to-May increase was the first month-to-month gain since July 2007, when the price moved from $502,000 to $505,000, which was the market's peak.
May's price was a 51% drop from that peak, and was down 33% from May 2008's median price of $370,000.
Orange County posted the largest monthly median price increase among the Southern California counties. Its $410,000 median price was up 8% over its April median of $380,000. Ventura County's median was up 4% in May, to $355,000, from $340,000 in April. San Diego also saw a modest 2% price increase in May, to $295,000, from $290,000 in April.
The median price in May essentially matched April's figure in Los Angeles ($300,000), Riverside ($180,000) and San Bernardino ($137,000) counties.
Last month, sales of homes priced at $500,000 and above rose from 15.2% of sales in April to 17% in May. The last time the $500,000-plus market made up more than 17% of all sales was last October, when they were 19.9% of sales, DataQuick reported. The share of homes purchased for less than $500,000 in May was down slightly to 83%, from about 85% the previous month, the firm said.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southern California buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,052 last month, up from $1,038 the previous month, and down from $1,782 a year ago, according to DataQuick.
Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 52% below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 61% below the current cycle's peak in July 2007.
peter.hong@latimes.com
