Monday, January 19, 2009

Ventura County December 2008 Sales




Dataquick released figures for Ventura County today. Sales volume was 876 which was up 20.2% Month over Month and 48.5% Year over Year. Median price was $338,000 which is down 4.79% Month over Month and 35.60% Year over Year. Dataquick notes that 55.7% of Southland sales were foreclosures, similiar percentages as seen in my previous breakdown of distressed sales. Currently Dataquick doesn't give short sales percentages but we see they are a rising force in the marketplace.

I think the banks and servicers got motivated at the end of the year to clear as much inventory as possible. The reason I say this is because in my weekly pending counts I never saw a surge of pendings or contingent transactions. It looked like there was a rush to close as many pendings deals as possible before the end of the year. Any strength in sales volume is tempered by the source of that strength, falling prices because of distressed sales. Sales volume is still very weak relative to history. If the distressed sales ever slow, sales will slow right along with them. While affordability has improved that doesn't mean homes are affordable.

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