California's housing-market slump showed hints of improvement in March, with sales of existing single-family homes increasing 64% from the prior-year period and median home prices rising month-to-month for the first time since August 2007, according to a trade group report.
California's inventory of unsold homes in March fell to a three-year low of five months, according to a report released Monday by the California Association of Realtors, WSJ reports. That compares with 12.2 months of inventory the group reported for March 2008.
The state saw sales of 522,980 existing single-family homes in March, compared with 319,290 in the year-earlier period, the report said. Home prices remained sharply down from a year ago: The March median price of $253,000 was up from $247,590 in February 2009 but down 39% from March 2008 levels.
Current bullish news out of California regarding the housing market is significant because of the fact that CA has been one of the epicenters of the housing collapse, and also because CA does not face the weather related factors that you see in the northeast. However, it should be noted that the number of sales in March 2008 were especially low.
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