Lake County’s housing market continued to pick up steam as existing home sales and prices propelled higher, with both posting back-to-back increases in March according to information gathered from the Lake County Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Home sales in Lake County totaled 52 units in March, according to the MLS. Sales in March were up 20.93 percent from 43 in February and up 1.96 percent from 51 in March 2014. The year-over-year sales increase was the first back-to-back sales gain since December 2012 and the largest observed since May 2012.
“The housing market is picking up momentum and continuing its upward trend as economic conditions improved throughout the state”, said the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) President Chris Kutzkey. “A better economy, improved job creation, and an increase in inventory in Central Valley and Southern California, in particular, are pushing sales higher, which led to the strongest February-to-March increase we’ve seen since 2008.”
The median price of a home jumped in March from both the previous month and year. The median home price was up 24.44 percent from $180,000 in February to $224,000 in March, the highest level in seven months. March’s median price was 44.52 percent higher than the $155,000 recorded in March 2014. The median sales price is the point at which half of homes sold for more and half sold for less; it is influenced by the types of homes selling as well as a general change in values.
With home sales growing at a faster rate than active listings in March, the available supply of existing, single-family detached homes for sale declined, with the Unsold Inventory Index falling from the 7.37 months reported in February to 7.08 months in March. The index, which indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, stood at 5.61 months in March 2014. A six- to seven-month supply is considered typical in a normal market.
“While housing supply has been improving in real terms in recent months, the growth rate in housing demand continues to outpace that of inventory, pushing the Unsold Inventory Index lower,” said C.A.R Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “The shortage in housing units relative to demand, along with the attractive rate environment, pushed home prices higher.”
Other key facts from Lake County’s March 2015 housing report include:
• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home also fell in March, down from 118 days in February to 116 days in March but was up from 98 days in March 2014.
• Mortgage rates moved upward in March, with the 30-year, fixed-mortgage interest rate averaging 3.77 percent, up from 3.71 percent in February but down from 4.34 percent in March 2014, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates also rose in March, averaging 2.46 percent, up from 2.43 percent in February but down from 2.48 percent in March 2014.
Ray Perry is the 2013 Realtor of the Year for Lake County and works for CPS Country Air Properties located in the Riviera Shopping Center. He can be reached at 277-8000.
