Inventory

Southern California's housing market ended the year with sharp gains, rounding out the first solid year of sustained improvement after nearly five years of real estate malaise - and helping set up further improvement in 2013. The region's median home price registered a sizable 19.6% pop in December compared with the same month last year to hit $323,000, real estate firm DataQuick reported Tuesday. A record level of cash buyers flooded into the market and more move-up homes sold last month.

A frustrating housing market for Southland buyers swelled in April as prices surged and inventory tightened. Homes sold at the fastest clip for that month in seven years, as regular buyers and investors snapped up more than 21,000 homes in the six-county region, real estate firm DataQuick reported Tuesday. That was a 4.1% increase from March and a 9.5% jump from a year earlier. Demand for move-up and high-end homes surged as mortgage interest rates remained near historic lows.

The number of distressed properties that may soon hit the market declined in January, according to a new report. The nation's so-called shadow inventory fell to 2.2 million units in January, an 18% drop from the same month a year earlier, real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday. That represents a supply of nine months. The Irvine firm calculates pending supply by estimating the number of homes that are in the foreclosure process, are owned by lenders or have seriously delinquent loans.

The number of distressed properties that may soon hit the market declined in January, according to a new report. The nation's so-called shadow inventory fell to 2.2 million units in January, an 18% drop from the same month a year earlier, real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday. That represents a supply of nine months. The Irvine firm calculates pending supply by estimating the number of homes that are in the foreclosure process, are owned by lenders or have seriously delinquent loans.

The Obama administration has little fear of “shadow inventory,” or eminent domain. Shadow inventory is the spooky name the real estate industry gives to a secret supply of homes on bank books or headed into foreclosure. In a meeting with Los Angeles Times editors and reporters Tuesday, Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said the volume of distressed and lender-owned homes was down at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration (which is part of HUD)

The mid-year 1987 inventory of unsold new housing in six Southland counties fell to a new low of 12,221, down 22.1% from the 15,688 unsold units at mid-year 1986, and 19.2% from the 15,116 at year-end 1986, according to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California.

There were 15,116 unsold new housing units within the six counties of the Southland at the end of 1986, a new low, according to the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California's quarterly report released Thursday. It was a drop of 29.4% below the 21,403 units outstanding at the end of 1985 and was a 3.6% fall from the previous low of 15,688 in mid-1986, due to a 41% decrease in completed units, said Michael Carney, executive director of the organization based at Cal Poly Pomona.

The ease with which agents for Iran allegedly gained access to the Navy's $36-billion weapons and equipment inventory triggered expressions of concern Tuesday over whether national security was endangered by the military's massive--but apparently thinly policed--computerized supply system. "It sounds like they were ordering out of a Sears & Roebuck catalogue," one government investigator said.

Rising prices and a looming vehicle shortage make this summer one of the worst times in years to go car shopping. But if your vehicle is on its last leg or your lease is about to come due, here are some tips on how to navigate through a difficult market. • Consider cars with incentives: Manufacturers still offer some incentives, especially for cars that are near the end of their model cycle or are slow sellers. Most of the big auto information companies, including Edmunds.com, TrueCar.Com and kbb.com (Kelley Blue Book)

House hunters looking for bargain properties in the new year will probably be disappointed. A new report by Santa Ana firm CoreLogic shows pending home supply declined again in October. This shadow inventory fell 12.3% from the year prior to stand at 2.6 million units, or a supply of about seven months. The housing recovery that began last year was spurred by tight inventory and strong demand from investors and buyers motivated by record-low mortgage-interest rates. Those factors have helped push up prices in recent months.

Sales of previously owned homes fell slightly in December from the previous month, an industry group said, but the national median home price rose the most in seven years. Sales fell 1.0% from November and were up 12.8% from December 2011, the National Assn. of Realtors said. In total, the group estimated that 4.65 million homes sold last year, up 9.2% from 2011. It was the highest level since 2007. Video: Experts discuss Southern California's housing market “Record low mortgage interest rates clearly are helping many home buyers, but tight inventory and restrictive mortgage underwriting standards are limiting sales,” the Realtors group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said in a news release.

Southern California's housing market ended the year with sharp gains, rounding out the first solid year of sustained improvement after nearly five years of real estate malaise - and helping set up further improvement in 2013. The region's median home price registered a sizable 19.6% pop in December compared with the same month last year to hit $323,000, real estate firm DataQuick reported Tuesday. A record level of cash buyers flooded into the market and more move-up homes sold last month.

House hunters looking for bargain properties in the new year will probably be disappointed. A new report by Santa Ana firm CoreLogic shows pending home supply declined again in October. This shadow inventory fell 12.3% from the year prior to stand at 2.6 million units, or a supply of about seven months. The housing recovery that began last year was spurred by tight inventory and strong demand from investors and buyers motivated by record-low mortgage-interest rates. Those factors have helped push up prices in recent months.

Lumber had a good end of the year, with an improving housing market and renewed export demand from China resulting in prices that hit an eight-year high. But lumber futures prices are expected to fall in 2013 as production ramps up, according to Forest Economic Advisors. On Monday, lumber contracts for March delivery were selling at $374.80 per 1,000 board feet on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. That was down 6.1% from last week, when prices surged to almost $400 per 1,000 board feet.

Stuck with too many trucks, General Motors Co. is offering discounts of as much as $9,000 to drain its supply of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups as it gets ready to launch a new generation of the vehicles next year. GM's truck inventory has ballooned to 139 days despite previous sales incentives designed to move the vehicles off dealer lots.  Automakers like to keep supplies of an individual model at about 90 days. “This is more inventory than any car manufacturer would like to have,” said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at Gartner Inc. Now the automaker will offer as much as $9,000 off remaining 2012 models and about $4,500 off 2013 model year trucks.

When he died in 1974, George Abraham Simmons left a bulky legacy: boxes and boxes of drugstore pills, salves and potions - enough to fill multiple cargo containers. What to do with it all? His family was stumped. Pharmaceuticals and botanicals, rouges, deodorants and still-sealed packs of cigarettes - he'd accumulated around 85,000 items. Photos: New life for old corner drugstore To label Simmons a hoarder, though, would be oversimplifying. Take a moment to understand his world.

Competition for lower-priced homes in California is so hot that the number of cheaper homes available for sale has sunk more than 40% in the last year, pushing out many would-be buyers. Homes that sold for $313,200 or less were the most competitive type of home nationally, but nowhere did inventory in that price range drop more than in the Golden State, according to a report released Thursday by real estate website Zillow. In some parts of the Inland Empire, the supply of homes on the market is down to about a month's worth, real estate agents say. Economists typically consider a six-month supply to be a healthy market.

I am amazed! People freely admit to a newswoman that they are "pleasure-seeking" adolescents in the fifth or sixth decade of their lives ("A Place With Every Single Thing--and More," Aug. 13). Jack Eskenazi proclaims to all that he has been through the "inventory" (i.e., women) in the Marina City Club. Jack will not date "inventory" outside his area code. To Carole (Jack's current unit of inventory): Any man who sees a woman as "inventory" will someday try to buy, sell, lease or discount you. To all the Caroles and Jacks at the Marina: Get out of your mink-lined playpens and do something with the time left to you. What a sad fate to finish one's life in an opulent rabbit hutch.

Competition for lower-priced homes in California is so hot that the number of cheaper homes available for sale has sunk more than 40% in the last year, pushing out many would-be buyers. Homes that sold for $313,200 or less were the most competitive type of home nationally, but nowhere did inventory in that price range drop more than in the Golden State, according to a report released Thursday by real estate website Zillow. In some parts of the Inland Empire, the supply of homes on the market is down to about a month's worth, real estate agents say. Economists typically consider a six-month supply to be a healthy market.

Housing inventory in California keeps coming up short. Lower-priced homes attractive to first-time buyers are in particularly scarce supply, according to a report released Thursday by real estate website Zillow. The number of lower-priced homes available in the Golden State shrank by more than 40% over the last year, according to the analysis. Lower-priced homes were defined as those that sold for $313,200 or less. California saw the largest inventory reduction in that classification of any state.