Housing Sales Southern California

Apartment owner Phil Dunford nudged the rents up on two of his small Anaheim complexes recently, something he hasn't been able to do for most of the 1990s. Being able to raise those rents was a sign that apartments remain the promising investment Dunford has long believed them to be--even when property values were plummeting a few years ago. Even so, Dunford and others familiar with apartment ownership are offering some words of caution to would-be investors.

Unfazed by El Nino's torrents, Southern California's relentless home buyers are snapping up more condominiums and other less expensive homes, further stoking the hot housing market, real estate analysts said Thursday. With home prices surging from San Diego to Ventura to the Inland Empire, the condominium market has emerged from a lengthy slump, reflecting increased interest among people at all income levels in buying a home, analysts said.

Southern California home sales surged in December--usually a so-so month--capping a solid year of recovery for the housing industry. The median home price last month rose 6.7% from a year earlier in Los Angeles County and a whopping 10.3% in Orange County. More homes sold in Los Angeles County in 1997 than in any year since 1990, Acxiom/DataQuick Information Services analyst John Karevoll said Monday.

Despite the prospect of a slowing economy, Southern California's housing market is expected to remain relatively healthy as demand for homes and apartments continues to rise and new construction fails to keep up, real estate experts said Monday. "Southern California's residential real estate fundamentals look solid," said Joe Mattey, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, during his presentation at the Annual Apartment & Housing Conference in Century City.

California's housing market continued to steam ahead in April, with the median sales price of existing homes jumping nearly 10% from the same month last year as the pace of home sales quickened, according to real estate figures released Tuesday. The median price of an existing single-family house sold in April rose to $199,160--a 9.9% increase on a year-over-year basis, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.

Southern California home values rose broadly during the first quarter, with sales prices increasing throughout the six-county region as the real estate market continued a slow but steady turnaround, according to a sales survey released Friday. The first-quarter results, which do not fully reflect the impact of a recent run-up in mortgage rates, showed a 1.9% increase in the median sales price from the same three-month period last year, according to Acxiom/DataQuick, a real estate research firm.

From the bustling back lots of Hollywood to the crowded docks of San Pedro, key industries in Southern California are on the rebound and helping revive a region of more than 15 million people that has been in an economic slumber throughout most of the 1990s. But the regional recovery comes with one major player noticeably absent: residential real estate. More than five years after home prices began their infamous plunge, Southern California's housing industry remains in a fragile state.

January sales of new and existing homes reflected a mid-winter sales lull in most of Southern California. Sales declined in most counties compared to 1994. Median sales prices were also down generally, with only Orange and Riverside counties bucking the regional results. January sales and median prices, in thousands of dollars: Sales Prices County 1994 1995 Change 1994 1995 Change Los Angeles 4,739 4,954 4.5% $170 $165 -2.9% Orange 2,183 1,707 -21.8 194 194 -- Riverside 1,356 1,216 -10.

Southern California home sales aren't soaring like they used to, but the Southland was the nation's largest mortgage market last year, according to TRW REDI Property Data. Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties accounted for 10% of all loans made to home buyers in the nation's major metropolitan markets, the report issued Friday stated. The three coastal counties, which accounted for 9.