Homes Ownership Getting Out of Reach for OC? Prices Rose 6.8%

Orange County, CA - The median price of a home in Orange County last month was up 6.8 compared with the same month a year ago, a real estate information service announced today.

According to CoreLogic, the median price of a home in Orange County was $625,000, and homes sales climbed a modest 0.8 percent from 3,156 in March 2015 to 3,181 last month.

In Los Angeles County, prices rose by 5.9 percent in March, compared with the same month a year ago, while the number of homes sold dipped by 1.4 percent.

The median price of a Los Angeles County home was $506,000 last month, up from $478,000 in March 2015. A total of 6,610 homes were sold in the county, down from 6,706 during the same month the previous year.

A total of 20,370 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, according to CoreLogic. That was up 34.5 percent from 15,149 in February and up 1.9 percent from 19,987 in March 2015.

The median price of a Southern California home was $449,000 in March, up 4.4 percent from $430,000 in February and up 5.6 percent from $425,000 in March 2015.

"Last month the housing market experienced a normal, seasonal spike from February in the number of recorded transactions, which reflects more buyers and sellers entering the market as the holidays and winter faced," said Andrew LePage, a research analyst for CoreLogic. "However, sales only rose about 2 percent year over year and remained about 15 percent below the average sales tally for the month of March since the late 1980s. This suggests that despite the improved economy and still-low mortgage rates, many would-be buyers continue to face hurdles such as waning affordability, moderately tight credit and a relatively inventory of homes for sale."

City News Service