A total of 35,185 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That’s down 8.1 percent from 38,291 for June, and down 21.9 percent from 45,051 for July 2006. Last month’s sales made for the slowest July since 1995 when 30,596 homes were sold. July sales from 1988 to 2007 range from the 30,596 in 1995 to 71,186 in 2004. The average is 48,200. On a year-over-year basis, sales have declined the last 22 months.

The median price paid for a home last month was $478,000, down 0.2 percent from $479,000 for the month before, and up 0.8 percent from $474,000 for July a year ago. The median peaked last March/April/May at $484,000.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $2,316. That was down from $2,319 in June, and down from $2,348 for July a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are 10.3 percent above the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 5.4 percent below the current cycle’s peak in June last year.

DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers cover all sales, new and resale, houses and condos.

Foreclosure resales accounted for 7.8 percent of July’s sales activity, up from 7.0 percent in June, and up from 2.0 percent in July of last year. Foreclosure resales do not yet have a marketwide effect on prices, although some local markets in the Inland Empire and Central Valley are showing early signs of downward pressure.

Other indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages and multiple mortgages has declined significantly. Down payment sizes are stable, flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is flat, DataQuick reported.

Source:

http://www.dqnews.com/RRCA0807.shtm