Southern California real estate prices jump

Market not experiencing bubble symptoms.
Inman News
The median price paid for a home in Southern California reached a new peak for the sixth month in a row in July, while the sales pace eased back from June's record-breaking tempo, a real estate information service reported.

The median price paid for a Southern California home was $469,000 last month, up 0.9 percent from $465,000 in June, and up 16.7 percent from $402,000 for July 2004, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Year-over-year price changes varied from 5.1 percent in San Diego County to 27.6 percent in San Bernardino County.

A total of 31,069 new and resale homes were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, down 12.4 percent from 35,454 in June, and down 5.8 percent from 32,988 for July last year, DataQuick reported.

A total of 204,588 homes have sold during the first seven months of this year, down 2.7 percent from 210,159 for the same period last year.

"We're watching the market carefully for any signs of a turn, for any signs of the 'bursting bubble' that some analysts have been predicting. So far we're not seeing anything other than the normal incremental changes you would expect in the ebb and flow of a real estate cycle," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.