California median home price rises in Feb.
Associated Press
By Jacob Adelman
... The median home price in California recorded its fourth consecutive month of year-to-year increases after more two years of declines, suggesting that a lasting recovery may be taking hold, a tracking firm reported. San Diego-based MDA DataQuick on Thursday said the 11 percent increase in the median price from February 2009 was due to a dip in foreclosures and an increase in high-end sales. The median for the state increased to $249,000 from $224,000 in February 2009 and about 1 percent from $247,000 in January.
Richard Green, who directs the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate, said banks, which hold the purse strings to the recovery, should find the median increase heartening. It shows that loans they extended in recent months have not lost value, as they did during the downturn, and it should encourage them to keep the recovery going by offering more mortgages, he said.
"Banks are not good at looking forward; they're good at looking back, and that frightens them," Green said. "But if mortgage performance improves, lenders will be more comfortable and you'll see finance loosen up a little bit."...