Hot Market: California Ends '08 With Run Up of Sales, Prices Stable
Average sales prices in the Western United States dropped year over year by almost 27 percent, which gave buyers incentive to jump off the fence at the second highest level for the year. Pending sales jumped 36 percent in December, compared to a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.
In the California Association of Realtors 2008 market wrap up senior research analyst Oscar Wei says, "Annual sales of existing homes for 2008 increased 26.7 percent from a revised 2007 figure of 346,940 to 439,740 in 2008. Large year-to-year percentage gains in sales will likely continue … ."
The more telling side of the coin is that prices are declining month by month at a much smaller rate -- only 2 percent from November to December. (Year over year, the average sales price was down 38 percent statewide.
Another sign of the strong recovery is demonstrated in the supply side number. "The unsold inventory index was 5.6 months in December, down from 6.9 months a month earlier and was less than half of the inventory level of 13.4 month a year ago. The index has been below the long run average of 7 months since July 2008, and the current inventory level of 5.6 months was the lowest since March 2006," Wei says.
