At least something sold

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Hmm. I thought Peter was going to tell you he has today off but seeing no such post waiting in the wings I will break the bad news. No, we aren’t holding him somewhere for ransom. He just has the day off. At least that’s what he told me. If you feel strongly about that, feel free to cast your vote on whether we should ever give him another day off. I will start the voting: Against.

In the meantime, we will attempt, however feebly, to fill the gap caused by Pete’s temporary absence. That said, I pulled some statistics from DMA DataQuick that might be of interest. Although there is information to be gleaned from monthly statistics, I often prefer to look at the bigger picture. Meaning accrues in duration, as they say. This picture looks at home sales for the first eight months of this year compared with 2007 in Southern California.

A couple of things popped out at the extreme ends of the spectrum. First, despite a dismal 28% fewer sales in L.A. County the first eight months of 2008, 35,685 homes did sell. Makes you wonder if perhaps this time next year, should sales slow more or even grind to a halt, that number will look pretty healthy. Second, sales in Riverside County are up by roughly that same percentage at just more than 29%. Why? Well, Riverside started the decline much earlier than L.A. County and there are a lot of foreclosure sales going on.

At other points in between are Orange County, down about 16%; Ventura County, down nearly 14%, San Bernardino County, down nearly 9%, and San Diego County, down 6%.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?