Oct. Prices Up from Sept.

Despite being 5.46 percent lower than a year ago, the overall median price for a home in San Diego County arrived at $485,000 in October, an increase of nearly $10,000 from September.

In fact, two more categories of home median prices saw upturns last month from the previous month’s data – the resale condo median (up 4.2 percent to $399,000) and the median price of newly built homes and condo conversions (up 9.9 percent to $455,000).

Those categories still fell into a negative year-over-year comparison. Here’s how each category stacked up when compared to the median price from October 2005:

• Overall median: $485,000 – down 5.46 percent
• Resale detached: $535,000 – down 4.5 percent
• Resale attached: $399,000 – up 1 percent
• New homes: $455,000 – down 12.5 percent

Detached resale homes had a median price last month of $535,000, which was down from September’s $545,000.

One month of statistics does not a trend make, I’ve learned. It will be interesting to see how the market fares in the next few months. Remember September? The year-over-year drop (the largest in 13 years) of 4.42 percent was surpassed by the latest figures. It is likely to be surpassed again in November, as the market hit its all-time peak in November 2005.

– KELLY BENNETT