The inventory of homes for sale in California dropped sharply in October as the pace of sales picked up, a report said Tuesday.
The California Association of Realtors Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in October 2008 was 5.9 months, compared with 15.2 months for the same period a year ago.
The index shows the number of months needed to deplete the state’s supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.
CAR said the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 45 days in last month, compared with 58.8 days for the same period a year ago.
“Statewide sales increased significantly in October to 552,750 homes on an annualized basis, the highest sales level since late 2005,” said CAR president James Liptak. “The record gain stemmed primarily from extremely large increases in regions with a high concentration of distressed sales.”
The Realtors reported that home sales increased 117.1 percent in California last month compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 39.9 percent to $311,060.
The Sacramento area was not immune to the price drop.
The median price of an existing home in Sacramento fell 34.8 percent to $195,000, with the city of Sacramento seeing a 45.1 percent drop to $150,000. Elsewhere in the region, the median price of a home in El Dorado County was $387,000, down 3.7 percent; in Placer County it was $320,000, down 20 percent; while in Yolo County, it was $279,000, down 22.5 percent.
Statewide, the 10 cities with the highest median home prices in the state during October 2008 were: Newport Beach, $1.15 million; Danville $883,250; Mountain View, $860,000; Santa Barbara, $835,000; Los Gatos, $810,000; Cupertino, $804,500; Santa Monica, $744,500; San Mateo, $740,000; Redondo Beach, $727,500; and San Ramon, $710,500.
Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 6.20 percent during October 2008, compared with 6.38 percent in October 2007, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 5.21 percent in October 2008, compared with 5.68 percent in October 2007.
