California home prices and sales fall in July

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Prices paid for California homes dipped last month as distressed properties continued to make up more than half of the market.

The median price paid for new and resale houses and condominiums statewide last month was $252,000, down 0.4% from June, and down 6% from July a year ago, real estate data provider DataQuick said.

The state’s median — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — has fallen year-over-year for 10 consecutive months. The median’s bottom for the current real estate cycle was $221,000 in April 2009, and the peak was $484,000 in early 2007.

An estimated 34,695 houses and condos were sold last month. That was down 11% from June, and down 1.4% from July 2010. A decline from June to July is normal for the season.

Of the existing homes sold last month, 34.6% had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was down from a revised 35.1% in June and down from 35.2% in July a year ago. The all-time high was in February 2009 at 58.5%.

Short sales –- transactions in which the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property -– made up an estimated 17.3% of resales last month. That was down from 17.4% in June and down from 18.6% a year earlier.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions, San Diego-based DataQuick said. Foreclosures have declined sharply, but remain high by historical standards. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, and cash and non-owner occupied buying has eased a bit in recent months but remains relatively high.

The July median price in Southern California fell 4% from a year earlier to $283,000. A total of 18,090 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in July, down 4.5% percent from July 2010.

The median price in the Bay Area was $374,000, down 7% from July 2010. A total of 6,887 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county area including San Francisco, up 1.7% from July 2010.

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Cheaper to rent than to buy condo in L.A.

-- Roger Vincent