Distressed sales contributed to a 9.2% month-to-month climb in California’s resales of detached single-family homes as the median price dropped below the $300,000 mark for the first time since February.
While distressed sales of this type are helping boost this category of existing home sales to an extent, the California Association of Realtors said in a report it believes distressed sales are ultimately continuing to hamper recovery. Delays in short sales, in particular, are a concern.
November’s median price for single-family detached homes was $296,820. This was down 2.4% from October’s $304,220 median price and down 2.5% from the revised $304,550 median price recorded for the same period a year ago. It was the first year-over-year price decline in a year.
Closed escrow sales of homes in this category totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 490,950 in November. While this was up 9.2% from October’s revised pace of 449,480 it was down 8.6% from the revised 536,940 sales pace seen in November 2009.
