Southern California home sales rose in October as prices showed more signs of firming. The median sale price fell by the smallest amount in two years, the result of a shrinking inventory of homes for sale and government and industry efforts to stoke demand and curtail foreclosures, a real estate information service reported.
Two counties – Orange and San Diego – posted modest year-over-year increases in their overall median sale price last month. It was the second consecutive gain for Orange County and the first in more than three years for San Diego. Both counties also posted small annual gains the past two months in their median price paid for resale single-family detached houses.
Last month 22,132 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was up 2.8 percent from 21,539 in September and also up 2.8 percent from 21,532 a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.
October marked the 16th month in a row with a year-over-year sales gain, although last month’s was the smallest of those increases. The 2.8 percent uptick in October sales from September wasn’t unusual, given sales have increased between those two months in half of the years – including 2007 and 2008 – since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. The average change between September and October is a decline of just under 1 percent.