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California foreclosure sales dip, home prices nudge up
SAN DIEGO November 19, 2009 3:40pm 
• More than four out of ten homes sold were foreclosures • Median prices still lower than a year ago There’s a glimmer of hope for the battered California housing market if one looks at last month’s sales and pricing numbers compared to September.
An estimated 41,280 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month -- up 2.6 percent from 40,216 in September, but down 2.4 percent from 42,293 for October 2008, according to MDA DataQuick, a real estate information company Thursday.
California sales for the month of October have varied from a low of 25,832 in 2007 to a peak of 70,152 in 2003. The average is 44,451. MDA DataQuick's statistics go back to 1988.
The median price paid for a home last month was $257,000, up 2.4 percent from $251,000 in September, but down 7.6 percent from $278,000 for October a year ago.
Of the existing homes sold last month, 41.2 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That is the lowest since May last year when it was 39.8 percent. In October 2008 it was 52.4 percent, it reached 58.8 percent last February.
The typical mortgage payment that homebuyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,097. That was up from $1,085 in September, but down from $1,362 for October a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month's mortgage payment was 48.6 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 58.3 percent below the current cycle's peak in June 2006.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity has declined somewhat but remains high by historical standards. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, and non-owner occupied buying is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick says.
MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver, B.C.-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.
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