Posted on 09/29/2004 2:47:36 PM PDT by Smogger
Home prices in California are inexorably closing in on a dubious milestone. With the median price of an existing single-family detached home in the state at $474,370 in August, a 2.6 percent increase from July, a half-million dollar median may be only months away.
Two Inland Valley cities already have reached that level. The median in Norco - up 40 percent in the last year - hit $524,750 last month, and Claremont - up 35.9 percent - reached $512,000, in numbers released Friday by the California Association of Realtors and compiled by DataQuick Information Systems.
Chino Hills ($487,000), La Verne ($483,000) and Corona ($450,000) aren't far behind.
Indeed, even though the median in the overall Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area slipped slightly from July to August, the figure of $310,120 was still 35.7 percent higher than it was a year ago.
"It's crazy for real estate people," said Bill Velto, manager of Tarbell Realtors in Upland. "Orange County is taking a beating, things are slowing in Riverside County south to Temucula, but the area around here is still hot."
It's hot all the way up to the High Desert, where the median price of $236,890 is up 45.3 percent from a year ago. Both Adelanto (57.9 percent) and Barstow (52.4 percent) were among the top 10 cities in the state for price increases.
"That's where the market is right now for home builders," said Frank Williams, chief executive officer for the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association. "We literally cannot build houses fast enough to keep up with the demand."
Velto said more than 1,800 homes were sold during August alone in the High Desert.
"That's one of the things pushing the market around here too," he said. "This corridor - Upland, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga - is the gateway to the High Desert."
The biggest negative in the statewide report was an 8.5 percent decline in California sales over last August, although it came as no surprise to CAR officials.
"We anticipated a decrease in home sales last month compared to a year ago," said Ann Pettijohn, CAR president. "Last summer, mortgage interest rates were at their lowest levels in more than 30 years, and monthly existing home sales hit an annualized all-time high."
One sign of the slippage is that there are far more homes on the market. CAR's Unsold Inventory Index for August was 4.3 months, compared to just two months in August 2003. The UII reflects how long it would take to deplete the inventory if homes continue to sell at the current rate.
Despite the slowdown, statewide sales are strong. Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president and chief economist for CAR, said year-to-date sales were up 5.2 percent over the same period in 2003.
"Residential real estate sales in California are on track to set a new annual record in 2004," she said.
With state prices climbing and local prices going up even faster, Velto said he didn't see any end in sight.
"Prices here are going to stop going up when people decide they do not want to live here any longer," he said. "Either that or they find a reason not to live here."
They are not government supported. They are making $50,000 to $100,000 a year doing peoples yards.
Cali and New York are in the same boat. I used to laugh my a-s off when I saw little houses in Bay Ridge going for $400,000+.
Where are the blacks going? Vegas? Antelope Valley?
True, but southeast Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties) have seen real estate go through the roof as well. My parents "downsized" when I left the nest to a smaller place for $300,000 in '99. That same house will sell for $600,000 today. A DOUBLING in value over FIVE YEARS!
I have lived here for the most part more than thirty years and I've never seen one myself. They do happen, but we're not in "tornado alley" so the chances of getting hit are pretty rare. We get "dust devils" a lot and dust storms though. Not dangerous as much as annoying. And gritty.
It's all personal choice. I'm a homebody, and I don't like to worry about high house payments. I like living in a nice, quiet, virtually crime free area in a nice 1600 sq ft 2 bedroom with trees and a yard--- and did I mention quiet? --- all for less than $1000 a month. Maybe if we were higher up on the payscale it wouldn't mean as much, but most anywhere else we'd be in a small "walk up" apartment with no washer/dryer hookups. The laundromat lost its charm while I was still in college. :-)
Plus, I absolutely love the people here.
lol.. missyme -- keep on lovin' it all. Say hello to the Pacific and Sierras for me, pls!
Well, there you are, if money is your focus then CA is your place.
For me, it is only secondarily about money. I can get money. Money comes and goes. What matters is quality of life. In CA, quality of life used to be first class all the way. I deeply remember how beautiful things were back in the 1960's. And that was when people started abusing the situation, started what I call eating the wallpaper, trying to get away with things on a big big scale and thus putting the whole thing at risk.
Now, we have terrible conditions of life, even though everybody lives in houses that turn over huge amounts of money, they are life-poor and probably frightened for their lives. I know I was and I was also responsible for wife and kids, whose lives were just as much if not more at risk. That is not worth a dime.
Why bother? I fail now to see what more that extra bit of cash would mean when I could live a slower-paced life somewhere else (now in an Atlantic-coast state, south of the M-D line). Sure, it's not easy to settle in and yes I am having to telecommute back to CA because I haven't yet found a new job and am living in rental property because we haven't found that perfect house yet. But, I'm also feeling safer, even with hurricanes. My anxiety level overall is dropping steadily, even though I still have anxiety nightmares recurring.
I'm in recovery and it's not pretty but it's not so ugly as it was when I lived in CA.
I'm glad to be gone and I wish you well. I do hope you escape also. It's just not worth cash to put up with all that California has made itself into.
A friend of mine bought a 900 sq ft run down hovel for $200k, three years later and a fixup and it is worth more then $500k. Insane.
I look online at a job website. Most of the high skill position openings are in areas like SoCal, NYC, Boston. Places where it'll cost you a quarter of a million for a shack. How do they fill these positions?
So did I! We sold our 2300 SF in March for $620,000. Last week I saw another, just one block away, was listed for $679,000. That's an increase of about $10,000 per month.
In the meantime, up in Washington State, we have almost completed our new home on 10 acres. It looks like the total cost will run just a bit over $200,000. The rest is sitting in the bank drawing interest.
With Indians...that's why H1B is so popular with corporate leaders. They can keep their headquarters in high-priced cities close to the restaurants and entertainment options that those leaders enjoy, and still hire brilliant employees who work cheap, don't mind living five to a house, and can't quit without being forced to leave the country.
After all, CEO's just can't get reliably good sushi in Fort Smith, Arkansas. ;)
I'd say it matters since you're being taxed on that "paper" value.
Semper Fi.
It's not all about money, but to the extent that CA obsesses on money, it's going to get dicier.
My money's in a bank now, too.
Well, if you measure the distance from Goleta to Imperial Beach, it's probably around 250 miles total. Also, while the coastal strip gravitates in width depending on the distance of the mountains from the sea (eg 5 miles in Goleta vs. 50 miles in the LA Basin), one of the better measures are the 101/405/5 freeways.
In SB & SD counties, nice developments exist on the east sides of the freeways, but through LA and OC, you gotta be west of the 101 (south of the Valley) and 405 [except for WLA/BH].
The weather is still nice, but the neighborhoods are shot. Which is another point that you raise: the concentration of nice neighborhoods is increasing, which explains the price increases in Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, HB/Newport Beach, etc. above and beyond the already big run-ups.
LA is like NYC - it's just an economic engine from its own size. There are 2B Asians and Indians who would like to live here. If only the upper micro % get in, the money they bring will continue to chase prices upward.
I was reading the realestate prices in Russia. Go about 100km from Moscow and you can buy a 10 acre farm for $5-10k (now near the city it's rising California style).
Inflation is easy to calculate: take out everything that went up in price, leave only cheap Chinese junk and there you go: NO INFLATION.
I like your list - however, I edited a few for you ;-/
Most things go up and down.....IMO, the "down" is coming for the real estate market.
ping
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