Southland housing posts strong March
Apr 18 2013 3:07PM
West Chester real estate might have had a good month in March, as the Southern California housing market showed significant improvement.
According to DataQuick, a total of 20,581 new and resale houses and condos sold in the six-county Southland, a 29.1 percent improvement from the previous month and 3.1 percent year-over-year gain.
Meanwhile, the median price continued to rise and hit $345,500, an 8 percent increase from February and 23.4 percent jump from a year ago at the same time. This is the highest the median price has been since July 2008 when it was at $348,000.
"It's remarkable how much the housing scene has changed in a year," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "At this point in 2012 there were still plenty of folks sitting on the market's sidelines, waiting to be sure the recovery was real. But gradually the psychology shifted as the economy picked up steam and mortgage rates fell to historic lows."
Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist at the Kyser Center for Economic Research, told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the median price is back to where it was before the recession, which is a good sign for the area's housing market.
As the Southern California housing market continues to improve, areas such as West Chester could see increased activity.
