Southern California Housing Report: New Housing Motto: Foreclosure Data is so Bad, it has to be Good! Median Price Down 31% to $348,000.

27 08 2008

Southern California Housing Report: New Housing Motto: Foreclosure Data is so Bad, it has to be Good! Median Price Down 31% to $348,000.

Posted by: admin in Real-estate news

The spin is out in full force folks. The Southern California housing numbers are now out and once again they show a dismal and pathetic market. Yet even in the face of falling prices ala the Wal-Mart commercials, you can rest assured that some are going to spin the data for all it […]
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The spin is out in full force folks. The Southern California housing numbers are now out and once again they show a dismal and pathetic market. Yet even in the face of falling prices ala the Wal-Mart commercials, you can rest assured that some are going to spin the data for all it is worth. You also need to remember that the recent data on Southern California is for the month of July, a historically strong month simply because of seasonal factors. In addition, the month of August should look similar to this month but expect the report for September due out in October to show the actual pay option ARM smack down.

But even with seasonality the spinsters are going to use the current minor bump in home sales as a major positive:

“(DQNews) La Jolla, CA—The number of Southern California homes sold last month edged up to its highest level in more than a year as bargain hunters swept up foreclosure properties in affordable neighborhoods, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 20,329 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 16.7 percent from 17,424 the previous month and up 13.8 percent from 17,867 for July a year ago, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

Last month’s sales count was the highest since 21,856 homes were sold in March 2007, though it still fell 23 percent short of the average July sales total since 1988, when MDA DataQuick’s statistics begin. From last September through June, sales for each month were at an all-time low for that particular calendar month, with the exception of April which was the next lowest. Last month’s sales total was the first since September 2005 to rise above the year-ago level.”

Bargain hunters? Foreclosures in affordable neighborhoods? Isn’t that an oxymoron? If the neighborhood was affordable in the first place you wouldn’t be seeing large number of foreclosures but that is an entirely different subject. Even though this report is trying to spin the 21,856 sales as a significant jump it is nowhere close to the sales that occurred during the bubble frenzy. Take a look at this data:

July 2004: 32,988

July 2005: 31,069

July 2006: 25,628

July 2007: 17,867

July 2008: 20,329

It helps to put things in perspective doesn’t it? Of course they aren’t going to say that sales for Southern California are off by 38% from their peak July month only a few years ago. And when they say that the jump was bolstered by “affordable neighborhoods” what they mean is that the majority of the sales were fueled by the Inland Empire were homes are being sold for whatever the market will take. Let us look at the details of the report:

I first direct your attention to the stunning jump in sales for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. These two counties make up the Inland Empire. But what the report doesn’t highlight is the actual median price of both these counties. They are now down 34 and 35 percent on a year over year basis and carry a median price of $260,000 and $230,000. Do you realize that Riverside County for example hit a high median price of $432,000 in December of 2006? So if we take that peak price to the current median price we get:

$430,000 - $260,000 = $170,000 (A 39% Discount)

Los Angeles County hit a peak of $550,000 and is now at $400,000. Nice $150,000 discount. Orange County? Orange County had a median price of $645,000 in June of 2007. That is a drop of $184,000 in one year. Would you wait a year for $184,000? I think most would.

Across the board prices are getting hammered. The reason sales jumped last month was in large part to the big jump in the Inland Empire. And of course homes are now selling for 50 to 60 percent off peak sales prices. To think this won’t happen in Los Angeles County and Orange County is simply unrealistic. It will happen. Just wait until the pay option ARM loans in these areas hit their anniversary dates.

You’ll love some of the reasons given for the fall off in prices:

“What we’re looking at is a fire sale of properties in newer affordable neighborhoods that were bought or refinanced near the price peak with lousy mortgages. What we’re still not seeing is this level of distress spreading to more expensive or established neighborhoods,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

The median price paid for a Southland home was $348,000 last month, down 2.0 percent from $355,000 in June and down 31.1 percent from $505,000 for July 2007. That peak of $505,000 was reached in March, April, May and July of last year.

The median has fallen because of depreciation, especially in inland markets, and because of the steep drop off in home financing in the so-called jumbo category, which until recently was defined as loans above $417,000.

Before the credit crunch hit in August 2007, nearly 40 percent of Southland sales were financed with jumbo loans. Jumbos last month accounted for 15.8 percent of Southland sales.”

First, what qualifies as a more established neighborhood? Are we talking about Malibu or Newport Coast? Sure, those areas are positive but only a fraction of the entire 20,000,000+ people that live in Southern California live there. That reminds me of something said during the Crash of 1929. Mr. Rockefeller during the crash of the Great Depression announced that he was buying stocks while everyone was selling. To paraphrase a market observer, “of course he is buying. He’s the only one left with money.” Well of course these areas are doing fine! They always do well irrespective of the economy. Yet I draw your attention to the chart above again. Every single county is down from 26.9% to 35.2%. That is a major correction in one year and we are yet to see the truly “lousy” mortgages hit the actual market.

Another interesting part of the report is the implication that jumbo loans are somehow hurting the market. Did you look at the overall Southern California median price? It’s at $348,000! You don’t need a stinking jumbo loan anymore. What you need is good credit and a solid income to buy a home and not some banana republic mortgage from the bubble days. Given that our unemployment rate is at 7.3% who really wants to buy a home when their income is at risk? You think those 200,000 state workers are hungry to buy a home given that Arnold is trying to cut them down to the minimum wage? What about all the jobs in housing that are now no longer bringing in good paychecks? If you connect the dots prices are going down because the entire state was turned into a housing casino and mortgages were used as chips.

I recall clearly a few months ago hearing on the radio here in Southern California, these permabull brokers talking about how great the Hope Now program would be for buyers. When this failed, it was going to be the fantastic Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout. Well of course all these idiotic programs failed because they missed one simple yet obvious fact. The economy is in distress! This is like offering lobster to a person with no taste buds. Or offering someone that lives in Palm Springs an Eskimo jacket. They don’t need gimmicks. What we need is for the state to get its budget in order and not offer tax breaks for subprime lenders. We need an infrastructure that is sustainable and not one built around finance, insurance, and real estate. Did people really think that we were going to trade homes to one another ad infinitum? Sure makes that $729,500 loan limit seem like an absolute boneheaded move.

I was going through some of the historical “help” that was going to save the market and have compiled a list here for your mental historical note keeping:

Of course these programs are all failing because they fail to address the structural problems of the system. That is, this was a bubble of epic proportions and the only way to sustain it is to bring back the toxic credit that fueled the market. I was digging through some images I have saved and found this screenshot of Hank Paulson on CNN from December of 2007: