Existing home sales in California in September were down from a year ago — but more sales were notched during the month than in August, according to the state's Realtor organization.
Statewide, 466,580 houses changed hands on an annualized basis in September. That's a 12.2% drop off from the same month a year ago, when the sales pace was 531,180. At the same time, it's a 3.8% gain over August's rate of 449,290, according to information collected by the California Association of Realtors from more than 90 local and regional Realtor groups. It was the second consecutive month that sales were up from the month before.
"We've seen a gradual improvement in the market over the past few months as we moved away from the influence of the tax credits, which pulled sales forward to the first part of the year," said CAR President Steve Goddard.
Despite the increased pace of sales, however, the number of existing houses on the market increased from a 4.5 months' supply in September 2009 and 6.1 months in August to 6.2 months in September 2010. Month's supply indicates the number of months needed to deplete the list of homes on the market at the current sales rate.
Time on the market also increased, from a median of 33.5 days to 52.5 days in September from 33.5 days in the same month a year ago.
