Ventura County July 2009 Home Sales

The July 2009 Ventura County home sales were released by Dataquick today. Homes sales came in at 837 which was down 3.80% YoY and down 0.83% MoM. The median price came in at $375,000 which was down 10.70% YoY and up 2.74% MoM. The median price is heavily influenced by the mix shifts and seasonality. Currently, due to REO supply being restricted, fewer homes are selling on the low end and the higher end homes are adjusting price and some are selling coming up from their ultra-low sales volume. The combination of the mix shift and the usual seasonal strength on the higher end increased the median. Basically we had prices falling on the high end and the low end stagnated due to low supply and that moved the median up while sales dropped.

One might ask where is all the tremendous sales volume we have been hearing about? Agents are leading people to believe all these houses are just flying off the shelf with multiple offers.. yet here we are with extremely low sales. This is a supply constrained market.. the buyers are out there but are restrained by affordability. Any home that comes on the market on the low end gets swarmed with offers with the first cash offer anywhere close to asking many times getting it. I saw a REO that closed today with a marketing time of 2 days get sold 10% under asking for cash. 2 days marketing time.. the banks are making sure inventory won't build up and most are aggressive with the inventory.