Housing holds in I.E.

The Daily Bulletin ^ | 11/29/2005 | Michael Rappaport

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If the party is over, folks in the Inland Empire don't appear to have gotten the message. Statewide housing prices dipped slightly in October 2005, according to figures released Monday by the California Association of Realtors. It was the second straight month of slippage, but in both of those months, local housing prices kept on climbing.

The median home price in the Riverside/San Bernardino metropolitan area was $394,840 in October, an increase of 1.4 percent from September and 24.2 percent from a year ago.

Compare that to a 1 percent drop to a $538,770 median statewide from September, and you have an anomaly.

"The Riverside/San Bernardino area is going against the grain," said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "Statewide and in Los Angeles, it's fairly evident that the market has peaked and prices are leveling off.

"Now the question is how far down they will go. The high end has been soft for a while already."

Sales were down all over the state from September, and were down in all but a few areas from a year ago.

Locally, sales were off 16.6 percent from September 2004 and 7.5 percent from October 2004, numbers significantly larger than the comparable statewide declines of 4.5 percent and 2.8 percent.

In terms of sales, it's been a pretty good year. Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist with CAR, pointed out that sales through October were 3.1 percent above the same period in 2004.

"That's on track with our expectations for 2005," she said.

As prices have gone up, the amount of inventory on the market has climbed. The Unsold Inventory Index for October was at four months, compared to three months a year ago.

Despite anecdotal evidence about people having trouble selling their homes, the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was up only one day -- from 34 to 35 -- over a year ago.

"Some people have their homes on the market because they're afraid of missing the peak," said Bill Velto, manager of Tarbell Realtors in Upland. "Some of the homes that aren't selling are priced too high."

At $605,000, Upland had the highest median price in the area, up 52.3 percent from a year ago. Rialto was the lowest with $360,000, but even that was a 28.6 percent increase from last year.

One reason prices keep climbing in the inland counties, Kyser said, might be that homes in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties are still several hundred thousand dollars cheaper than those in coastal counties.

"A lot of people would like to be closer in," he said. "But especially with younger buyers, they may feel that if they're ever going to get their foot in the door, they need to go someplace where they can afford to buy."

That's one reason that even if California's housing boom is over, it may be a while before the party lights in the Inland Empire stop shining.

Median home prices in October 2005 in Inland Valley cities, along with percentage increase or decrease from the same month in 2004. Numbers are courtesy of California Association of Realtors:

Chino $507,000 up 26.9 percent

Chino Hills $595,000 up 28.0 percent

Claremont $575,000 up 25.0 percent

Corona $536,500 up 16.3 percent

Diamond Bar $528,000 up 12.8 percent

Fontana $430,000 up 38.7 percent

La Verne $550,000 up 16.2 percent

Mira Loma $549,000 up 29.8 percent

Montclair $406,500 up 12.9 percent

Norco $557,000 down 1.5 percent

Ontario $405,000 up 23.5 percent

Pomona $390,000 up 22.1 percent

Rancho Cucamonga $455,000 up 20.3 percent

Rialto $360,000 up 28.6 percent

San Dimas $572,500 up 36.6 percent

Upland $605,000 up 52.3 percent

Michael Rappaport is business editor of the Daily Bulletin. He can be reached at (909) 483-9395 or at m_rappaport

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My neighbor not wanting to miss out on the boom is selling his 1400 sq ft house for $565,000. Mine is around 2000 sq ft. and I paid 174K in 2000.