O.C. Home Sales Jump, But Prices Fall

April home sales in Orange County rose 17.5 percent vs. the same month last year, but prices dipped 2.3 percent, according to DataQuick, a real-estate information service.

A total of 2,920 homes were sold in April, up from 2,485 a year ago. The median home price was $420,000, down 2.3 percent from $430,000 in April 2011.

Next door in Los Angeles County, sales rose by 8 percent vs. a year ago, while prices fell 3.1 percent. The median price of a home in Los Angeles County in April was $310,000, down from $320,000 in 2011.
  
Regionally, 19,282 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in April,
according to DataQuick. That was down 3.4 percent from 19,953 in March, and up 5.1 percent from 18,344 in April 2011.

``The housing market continued its painfully slow crawl back toward normalcy last month,'' said John Walsh, DataQuick president. ``You can see it in the fading role of foreclosures, the uptick in median prices here and there, and the higher levels of sales in coastal counties.''

The median price for a Southern California home was $290,000 last month, up 3.6 percent from $280,000 in both the previous month and April 2011, according to DataQuick.

-- City News Service