www.latimes.com/business/la-051606homes_lat,0,7740079.story
Large Text Size Large Text Size Change text size Growth of Median Home Prices Slowing By Annette Haddad, Times Staff Writer 11:29 AM PDT, May 16, 2006 Southern California homeowners, say goodbye to your good friend: Double-digit price appreciation. For the first time in 4 1/2 years, the region's median home price rose less than 10% year over year, data released today showed. It was the most dramatic sign yet that the Southland's housing market is coming to the end of its long-running boom.
In April, the median price for the six-county region was $485,000, a 9% gain over April 2005, but virtually flat from March's median of $486,000. It was the fifth straight month of declines, but at 24,748 transactions closed, the number was still above the average for the past two-decades. The housing market "is moving in the direction we thought it would," said John Karevoll, DataQuick's chief analyst. But identifying what the next phase may bring could be tricky. These days, Southern California's housing market is defined by three undisputable facts: Slowing sales, flattening prices and a sharp increase in the number of homes for sale. What's more, about a third of homes on the market have had their asking prices reduced at least once, listing data provided by ZipRealty showed. It's not the same red-hot sellers' market of the last three years, but it's also not a buffet of bargains for buyers either. "No one's in a panic mode," said Patrick Lashinsky, senior vice president of ZipRealty, an Emeryville-based brokerage with offices in Southern California. "Sometimes it swings back a little too much, but right now it's swinging away from sellers and more toward buyers."
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