Amid the news from the subprime mortgage sector and warnings from analysts that the housing market’s slump could be prolonged as fewer borrowers qualify for home loans, February’s home prices held fairly constant in San Diego County.
The median price for all the homes sold in February was $480,000, down nearly 6 percent from the price logged in February 2006, but up 1.7 percent from January’s all-home median, DataQuick Information Systems reported today.
A month-to-month increase was also seen in the new construction category, which recorded a median price of $410,000, up from $395,000 in January but down more than 12 percent compared to last February.
Resale home prices stayed constant for the fourth month at $540,000. Resale condos dipped a bit, down to $378,750 from January’s $380,000.
In the number of sales, the only category to post positive year-on-year and month-to-month changes was new construction. The 755 new homes sold last month constituted a 6.6 percent increase from February 2005 and a 17.4 percent jump from January’s rate.
Sales in the all-home category were up 3.3 percent compared to January but down 5.7 percent year-over-year.
Resale condos posted a 2.2 percent gain from January, while resale homes dipped 2.3 percent during that time. About 6.4 percent fewer condos sold in February than sold in the same month in 2005, while the resale detached house sales rate dropped by more than 10 percent compared to February 2005.