O.C. home prices decline

The median falls 0.4% from a year earlier -- its first such drop since '96. The region's sale volume hits a decade low. By Annette Haddad, Times Staff Writer
10:36 PM PDT, March 14, 2007
Orange County last month posted its first year-over-year decline in median home price in more than a decade, another sign of the widening reach of Southern California's housing slowdown, data released Wednesday showed.
Orange County's 0.4% drop put it alongside San Diego and Ventura counties in recording price declines, while Riverside County managed no price gain for the first time in a decade, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based research firm.
However, the median price for all six Southland counties still rose to another record, thanks to gains in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
"February's record Southland median is another indication the housing market, although certainly weaker than last year, is hardly down for the count, as some would suggest," DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said.
The decline in Orange County's median was not unexpected. Since October, the median price of resale homes — the largest housing segment there — had been declining, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said. The overall median stayed positive because of price growth in new homes.
"What's surprising is how long it took Orange County's all-home median to go negative," he said. "It was only a matter of time."
The year-over-year decline in Orange County, the region's most expensive home market, was its first since November 1996, according to DataQuick. The median fell to $620,000 as sales dropped 16.4%.