Home Prices Up... Volume Down..

The L A Times has two articles on housing and home prices in the last two days. Both articles have similar messages about prices in LA County....The volume of sales is down but prices have risen over the same period last year and prices have remained steady for the last two months. In today'sDaily Breeze the headline reads Home Sales Drop to 10 Year Low but the article notes that in LA County prices rose 4.5% while sales are only down by 2.4% from last
month. They are using 1996 as a bench year for low sales.... however the number of sales while down is higher then 1996 numbers by 3,512 homes.

For many potential buyers and sellers the numbers are confusing. This time of year is typically a slow time for sales. So we will definitely see sale vouume declining through the first of the year. What is confusing for consumers is how can prices rise and decline at the same time. If prices go up on Strand property in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach but decline in east Manhattan and the Hermosa hills.. they may just balance out over all or show slight increases. The most intersting statistic was in today's Daily Breeze article where they noted the typical mortgage payment today is $2,287 which is down $22 from last month but up $118 from last year. This really shows the impact higher interest rates can have on the market.