Los Angeles County (South) and North O.C. Tell Interesting Stories Of Prices, Sales and Inventory

The latest market updates for April, 2013, are out for the south Los Angeles County and North Orange County cities--and here is a breakdown of stats for single family homes in local cities (all comparisons are a one-month comparison of April 2013 to April 2012, not on an annual basis):

• Long Beach  -- New listings are up 4% for April 2013; the median sales price has increased 25% to $440,500 (citywide figures); the average sales price is $495,000, an increase of 27%. Listing inventory has decreased by 62.6%, with 1.4 months of inventory at the end of April.
• Cerritos -- New listings are up 25% for April 2013; the median sales price has increased 8% to $573,000 (citywide figures); the average sales price is $615,758, an increase of 14%. Listing inventory has decreased by 78%, with 1 month of inventory at the end of April.
• Lakewood -- New listings are up 8.2% for April 2013; the median sales price has increased 12% to $405,000 (citywide figures); the average sales price is $413,000, an increase of 14%. Listing inventory has decreased by 76%, with .8 months of inventory at the end of April.
• Signal Hill -- New listings are down 42% for April 2013; the median sales price has increased 18% to $594,750 (citywide figures); the average sales price is $529,875, an increase of 8.8%. Listing inventory has decreased by 77%, with 1.8 months of inventory at the end of April.

The general picture is: prices have gone up, and inventory for all properties (houses and condos) is down compared to last year this time, with the lone exception of Avalon (Catalina Island), where inventory is actually up 17% but the median market price is down 33%.   Areas with the greatest increase in median market price tended to be lower priced areas in the past, and are now attracting buyer attention, Bell Gardens and Stanton being two examples.  Los Alamitos (including Rossmoor area) actually decreased by about 6% in median price.  Long Beach stands out at the top of the list of all area cities for the greatest number of closed sales in April at 324 and the most new listings, followed by Irvine at 264 closed sales, then by Anaheim and Huntington Beach.  Of the 68 cities included in the geographic area, only 4 are showing a decrease in median price!

Do you want to know what's going on in your zip code? It's sometimes a different picture than the surrounding city. Get the picture now by giving me a call or e-mailing me, so that you can stay up with your market.