By ANDY FIXMER
Los Angeles County home values shed nearly six months worth of appreciation in January as the market continued a slide that shows no sign of ending soon.
The median price of an existing single-family home in L.A. County fell to $519,000 in January, a $6,000 decline from the month earlier and the lowest median price since July, according to HomeData Corp., a Melville, N.Y.-based company that tracks housing data.
The January median price is 17% higher than it had been one year earlier.
It’s also the narrowest year-over-year increase in L.A. County home values since May.
Real estate agents said the retreat in home sales and pricing is being sparked by everything from higher mortgage interest rates to buyers being more selective as the available stock rises.
“What’s backing up right now are the homes that would have been snapped up before for just having the right zip code,” said Michael J. Collins, general manager of the Manhattan Beach office of Shorewood Realtors. “Buyers are being more choosy, and a lot of times they can wait to see what comes out next week.”
The January figures also point to a Los Angeles housing market that is steadily cooling off after nearly three years of red-hot appreciation that has more than doubled the value of many L.A. County homes.
While year-over-year appreciation levels continue to be well above normal historical rates of between 5% to 7%, January is the sixth straight month of declining or stagnant median home prices for L.A. County.
However, the possibility that L.A.’s housing market could go into a free fall, leaving some homeowners owing more than their properties are worth, isn’t likely, according to Leslie Appleton-Young, the senior economist for the California Association of Realtors.
“We are definitely transitioning to a lower number of transactions and lower pricing,” she said.
For several months, the year-over-year appreciation rates in other Southern California counties have slid to single-digit rates.
However, homes in L.A. County have continued to appreciate more rapidly because of a less volatile economy and a greater range of prices, Appleton-Young said.
Still, L.A.’s housing market,like those regionally and nationally,faces some big tests in the upcoming year.
Mortgage interest rates rose for the third consecutive month in January, putting housing further out of reach for most L.A. County families.
Only 12% of families in L.A. County had the income to qualify for a conventional mortgage to buy the median-priced home in December, according to the association.
Similarly, as home appreciation continues to flatten, lenders are becoming more conservative about making hybrid loans, such as interest-only mortgages, that a majority of homebuyers have turned to in recent years.
Fixmer is a staff writer with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
