Orange County’s median home price tumbled by $14,000 from February to March, aided by the increase in discounted sales of foreclosed homes that’s being seen across the Southland.
The median price of an OC home was $506,000 in March, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.
Median prices here are down $123,000, or about 20%, from a year ago, and are off nearly 22% from OC’s record high of $645,000, set last June.
Sales in the county were off 47% from a year earlier, with 1,663 home sales in March. Sales were up 13% from February’s levels.
Across Southern California, sales were up 19% from a month ago, to 12,808 new and resale homes and condos. Sales have increased an average of about 38% from February to March the past 20 years, with the onset of spring, according to DataQuick.
Nearly 38% of Southland sales in March were resales of previously foreclosed homes. That’s up from 8% a year ago.
The median price of a Southern California home was $385,000 in March, a 5.6% drop from February and a 24% decrease from a year ago. It’s the lowest level seen since April 2004.
