As San Diego County’s housing market slowly climbs back to normal, SouthernCalifornia as a whole still suffers from a high level of distressed properties, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday.

“This market is still really lopsided,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement. “Foreclosures and short sales (homes sold for less their mortgage balance) are huge factors. There’s still not a lot of discretionary buying and selling outside the more affordable markets. Anybody who can sit tight is doing just that.”While the six-county region’s overall median price was unchanged last month at $285,000 from year-ago levels, prices in San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties were in positive territory. Foreclosure-plagued San Bernardino and Riverside counties were down 13.6 percent and 9.1 percent respectively. Los Angeles was also in negative territory, off 3.2 percent. The November median for the region was up $5,000 from October.

 

As reported yesterday, San Diego County’s year-over-year price increase in November was the highest in four years, up $20,000, or 6.6 percent, to $325,000. The last time the percentage change was higher was in October 2007, one month before the median reached a record $517,500. It then fell to a low of $280,000 this past February before starting to rise to its present level. San Diego’s median has remained unchanged for four months.

DataQuick said sales throughout the region are being propelled by unusual conditions — historically low interest rates, federal tax credits and investor interest, especially in lost-cost homes in foreclosure or distress. Sales of newly built homes and condominium conversions were up 25.5 percent to 2,039 from year-ago levels and were the highest of the year.

San Diego’s 374 new-home sales were the highest since January 2008, a reflection of the county’s unique geographical and political makeup — no room to grow, tough environmental and regulatory rules, and an economy, while ailing, that can depend on the military to provide a foundation lacking elsewhere, said Louis A. Galuppo, director of residential real estate at the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.

“Demand is such that folks will continue to buy — they’re wanting to buy, they’re waiting to buy,” Galuppo said, but many are coming up short because they can’t get financing or they’re being outbid. “Notwithstanding that, we’re still having good sales, selling at more than 3,000 homes a month. San Diego may in fact lead Southern California because we have that tremendous pent-up demand. That may be an anomaly for the rest of Southern California. I don’t think they’ve had the demand we currently have.”

DataQuick said sales regionwide totaled 19,181, down from 22,132 in October as is usually the case, and up 14.7 percent year-over-year. San Diego sales totaled 3,148 last month, down from 3,671 in October and up 17.8 percent from November 2008.

Foreclosures represented 39.1 percent of resales regionally, compared with 40.6 percent in October. San Diego County’s foreclosure percentage was 32.6 percent, down from 34.5 percent in October.

All-cash buyers, many of them investors who later take out a mortgage, represented 24.4 percent of sales, nearly double the 21-year average of 13.7 percent. The November percentage for San Diego was 22.6 percent, compared with a historic average of 15.6 percent.

Non-owner occupants — investors as well as second-home purchasers — accounted for 19.1 percent of all buyers, not too far off the nine-year average of 15.5 percent. For San Diego, the November percentage was 20.5 percent, compared with the 18.2 percent historic average.

The typical mortgage payment last month regionally was $1,207, up from $1,196 in October and down from $1,380 in November 2008. Federal Housing Administration-insured loans were involved in 38.1 percent of all purchases, more than 15 times the 2.5 percent market share of two years ago — a reflection of the difficult lending conditions at most banks.

The use of adjustable-rate mortgages continued at a historically low level of 4.1 percent, compared with an average 47 percent from 2000 to 2005 throughout the region.