Orange County’s median home price took another tumble in January, as bargain hunters focused on buying distressed properties in more affordable areas of the county.
The median price of an OC home was $370,000 in January, a nearly 7% decline from December, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.
Median prices here are down about 29% from a year earlier and are off nearly 43% from their all-time high in June 2007.
Sales continue to increase from a year earlier, although few of those sales were seen in coastal areas such as Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, which have held their values better than inland areas, according to DataQuick.
Sales in the county increased 40% from a year earlier, with 1,806 sales in January. Sales here were down 30% from December’s totals.
Foreclosure resales,where a foreclosure had occurred at some point in the prior year,accounted for 46% of the county’s sales in January.
The median price of a Southern California home was $250,000 in January, a 10% drop from December and a 40% decrease from a year ago.
Southland sales in January were up 53% from a year ago.
Foreclosure resales made up nearly 60% of all Southland homes that resold. Newly built homes saw their lowest levels of sales for a January in at least 21 years.