Real Estate News for Thursday, December 15th, 2005

Real estate sales slow in Southern California. Prices continue to march upward. Southern California home sales dropped from November 2004 to November 2005 in several Southern California counties while prices continue to escalate, a real estate information service reported today. About 27,600 new and resale homes were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in November, which was down 3 percent from October and up 0.6 percent from November 2004. So far this year 326,746 Southland homes have been sold, virtually unchanged from 326,880 for the first 11 months of last year. Home sales activity dropped 9.5 percent in San Diego County, 3.6 percent in Los Angeles County, 1.8 percent in San Bernardino County and 1.6 percent in Orange County from November 2004 to November 2005, while jumping 18.6 percent in Riverside County and 12.1 percent in Ventura County in that time.
Meanwhile, median home prices rose 23.2 percent in San Bernardino County, 20.7 percent in Ventura County, 19.5 percent in Los Angeles County, 17.1 percent in Riverside County, 13.9 percent in Orange County and 6.4 percent in San Diego County from November 2004 to November 2005Click here to read more.

Pros see no doom, gloom in slowdown. Bursting of price bubble not in view. A panel of economists and real estate professionals meeting at the University of San Diego said yesterday the county's housing market was returning to normal growth patterns following the boom that began in the late 1990s. The fundamentals of the housing economy remain sound, said Louis A. Galuppo, director of USD's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate. "We may see a decline in sales but not prices." Despite rising interest rates, a growing for-sale inventory and a slowing sales pace, the county's shortage of housing will prevent prices from dropping steeply, speakers asserted. Click here to read more.

Bullish on O.C. prices. Real estate experts predict values will stay strong and weigh in on foreclosures, risky financing and housing crunch. Orange County's home prices won't drop next year and could rise 3 percent to 15 percent, according to a panel of local experts. A majority of the 10 experts on a Register-sponsored real estate roundtable predicted Tuesday that prices will increase more than 3 percent next year, while four of them said prices will remain flat. The panelists included economists, real estate executives, consultants, a researcher and a broker – all with knowledge of the local real estate market. Their optimism is more or less in line with the UCLA Anderson Forecast's recent prediction of a 6.9 percent rise in home prices in 2006. The gurus at Chapman University are more bearish; they forecast a 4.2 percent dip in prices next year. Click here to read more.

Rate cut sought for California title insurance. Insurance official says consumers are being overcharged. California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is expected to announce today that he is taking steps to make title insurers cut the rates paid by California homeowners. Garamendi plans to hold hearings to examine title insurance premiums and, based on an upcoming study, expects "in the coming months to issue orders directing rates to be lowered to the levels at which they would be were this a competitive market." Garamendi is expected to release the study today, a 111-page report that concludes that three insurers control 75 percent of the state's title insurance market. "The report confirms that California homeowners and home buyers are being systematically overcharged because title insurers refused to compete with one another on the basis of low prices," Garamendi said. The report was authored by Texas insurance economist Birny Birnbaum. "These overcharges operate like a tax on home purchases and refinancing, pricing people out of the market and acting as a drag on the economy," Garamendi said. Garamendi's upcoming report concludes there is little variation among the top six companies' prices. Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
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