Listing prices down 102K from peak

Median listing prices in greater L.A. slipped another $1,900 over the past week, and are now running 12.9% below year-ago levels, according to Housing Tracker's weekly analysis of MLS listing data.

Highlights: Listing prices dropped to $478,000; inventory of unsold homes and condos rose to 41,552, an increase of 33.8% over year-ago levels.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Date	Median listing price	yoy change	MLS inventory	yoy change
4/06	$579,666	n/a	27,251	n/a
4/07	$545,000	n/a	35,489	n/a
5/07	$545,000	n/a	38,297	n/a
6/07	$540,000	n/a	40,766	+20.4%
7/07	$535,000	n/a	42,685	+14.5%
8/07	$529,000	n/a	44,483	+13.6%
9/07	$520,000	n/a	46,414	+16.9%
10/07	$510,000	n/a	46,603	+15.6%
11/07	$499,900	n/a	46,503	+19.0%
12/07	$495,000	-10.0%	43,174	+28.2%
1/14/08	$480,000	-12.6%	41,122	+34.9%
1/28/08	$478,000	-12.9%	41,552	+33.8%

Thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com

Comments

[jb]

This decrease is chump change that only partially makes up for a small part of the fraudulent and speculative bubble. Bernanke is Wall Steet's whore, and it is a disgraceful sight.

[JK]

Still a long way to go... look out belooooooooooww!!!!!!!!

[andree]

This is tip of ice-berg. Enough been discussed in the blogs, time and over and we all knew it is going to happen. Unless we have hoards of imported wealthy people lining up to buy in sunny california, future holds not so bright light for median. I think median will drop to may be 150.000.

[mbagrad]

For this, and other reasons we just renewed my lease for another year. It's funny, two years ago when we decided to rent instead of stretching to buy a house 6.5x our income, we actually worried that we would never, ever be able to afford a house.

That fear was real and palpable at the time, since prices had doubled in the 2 years since we finished grad school.

But now, I'm wondering when prices will STOP going down???

All I want is some pricing stability!

[perks]

I gotta admit, I'm hooked on seeing these numbers. I'm one of the few fools buying a house right now, so I shouldn't even be looking...but I'm still thrilled to see prices returning to reality.

[tew]

Wow, I started getting bearish on housing in 2003 and was "pounding the tables" by 2005, but looking at the actual numbers, it's still stunning. It is coming down in a big way.

FYI - that $102k decline is an 18% reduction. Alternatively, the median listing price was 21% higher at the peak.

[Eddie of Long Beach]

As much as I hope prices return to their historical norms (which means a drop around 30%), I fear the gov't will not let that happen due to the need to keep the consumer consuming. The gov't doesn't care that if you spend money you don't have, it only cares about keeping the GDP growing.

[yinyang]

We need more people to walk away from their homes for the price to correct at faster pace. I doubt many with equity will sell now and no one is crazy enough to sell below what is owed on the mortgage (short sale excluded). Only banks can unload with the loss divided among thousands of stock holders, millions of tax payers, chinese and arabs. So if you are upside down, then just walk away. The economy will take a hit and we will all hurt in the short term (mitigated somewhat by lower fed rates). Hopefully, there will be a tighter lending standard (set by the market force since some of worse offending banks will not be around), stabilization of the RE market, inflation at palatable level and then once things calm down, we can then think of others ways to screw each other.

[Chris in Sacramento]

Prices are falling at roughly 1.7% per month over the past seven months. Annualized, that portends a one-year decline of 20%.

After I sold in Jan 2003, I almost went crazy watching the insane price increases. But it appears that in a year or so, I'll be able to buy a nicer home at a better price per sq ft.

[CaptHowdy]

Interesting to see that uptick in inventory... Is the "spring selling season" getting started early this year?

My bet is that we'll break 50K houses on the market this year, easy. Way more supply than demand... at least at current prices, that is.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

This market is like Wile E. Coyote.

Every roadrunner knows what will happen next around the bend.

[Laker]

CaptHowdy , with 41,552 as of January 08, we are going to see the inventory goes at least to 60,000 in August. There is one thing that is very unlikely will happen that might reduce that inventory number substantially and it is price reduction. Something like $300,000 median...but as i said, this is very unlikely to happen in August 08.