L.A. Home Prices and Sales Chill Out in January
Los Angeles Business Journal
By Joel Russell
Los Angeles County housing prices declined 4 percent in January, and they don't look like they are going to improve any time soon.
The median price of new and existing homes fell to $330,000, the lowest it has been since last February, before federal home tax credits temporarily goosed the market in the spring, according to HomeData of Hicksville, N.Y.
It's also the average price of summer 2009, a few months into what then appeared be the start of a recovery, which later petered out. Further evidence of a weak market: The number of homes sold fell to 3,344 units in January, 10 percent off a year earlier.
Gary Painter, director of research at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, said that home sellers shouldn't expect any good news in the first quarter.
"I would expect to see declines in the next three months," said Painter, who believes a growing number of foreclosed and short-sale houses will continue to depress the local market...