Home Prices Continue Rising In Lake Elsinore, Wildomar

Home prices are continuing to rise in Southern California, and both Lake Elsinore and Wildomar are higher than the county average.

The median price of a home in Riverside County increased by 25.9 percent in July, compared with the same month a year ago, while the number of homes sold rose by 14.9 percent, a real estate information service announced today.

According to DataQuick, the median price of a Riverside County home was $265,000 last month, up from $210,500 in July 2012. A total of 4,076 homes were sold in the county, up from 3,546 during the same month last year.

Lake Elsinore and Wildomar saw similar improvements. The median home sales price in Lake Elsinore was $292,250 during the period May through July of this year, Trulia.com reports. That figure is 55.5 percent higher than it was a year ago for the same period, according to the website.

A total of 25,419 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, according to DataQuick. That was a 17.6 percent jump from 21,608 in June and up 23.5 percent from 20,588  in July 2012.

The median price for a Southern California home was $385,000 in July -- the same as in June but up 25.8 percent from $306,000 in July 2012. According to DataQuick, the June and July median prices were the highest for any month since April 2008, when the median was also $385,000.

"July home sales came in very strong, and we think a lot of the increase in activity can be chalked up to a rising inventory of homes for sale," DataQuick President John Walsh said. "The jump in mortgage rates a couple of months back might have spurred more buying too. The market continues its re-balancing act, with more and more people who've been underwater now able to sell their homes at a profit, or at least break even."

With home prices continuing to rise, so is the number of people who can't afford to purchase a house in Riverside County.

Across the state, the percentage of home buyers who could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California during the second quarter of the year was 36 percent, down from 44 percent in the first quarter and down from 51 percent in the same quarter last year, according to the California Association of Realtors announced last week.   

In Riverside County, 49 percent of home buyers could afford to purchase a house, down from 54 percent in the first quarter and 65 percent in the second quarter of 2012.

CAR's Housing Affordability Index measures the percentage of households that can afford to purchase a median-priced single-family home and, according to CAR, is considered the most fundamental measure of housing well-being for home buyers in the state.

According to CAR, home buyers needed an annual income of $79,910 to qualify for the purchase of a $415,770 statewide median-price single-family home in the second quarter. The monthly payment would be $2,000, assuming a 20 percent downpayment and interest rate of 3.64 percent on a 30-year fixed loan. 

In Riverside County, home buyers needed a minimum annual income of $54,780 to qualify for the purchase of a $285,020 median-price single family home.

Nearly all regions of the state experienced significant quarter-over- quarter declines in housing affordability, with Bay Area and coastal regions experiencing the greatest drops, according to CAR.

At an index of 71 percent, Madera County was the most affordable county of the state while San Francisco and San Mateo counties tied for the least affordable at 17 percent. --City News Service and Toni McAllister contributed to this report.