Home prices and sales in San Diego County!

Here's a breakdown of the major housing categories, based on the real-estate tracker's monthly report:

ALL HOMES: The median price in June was $330,000, up 1.7 percent from May but down 1.6 percent from a 
year ago. It's the 25th straight month the median price for all home types has been in the $300,000 to 
$340,000 range. The county peaked at $517,500 in Nov. 2005. June sales increased 11.6 percent from May 
but were down 11.4 percent from a year ago.

RESALE HOMES: This makes up the bulk of monthly sales. Prices slid 1.1 percent from May to $365,000 and
fell 3.9 percent from the same time last year. Month-over-month, sales increased 12.2 percent to 2,196 
but fell 4.6 percent year-over-year.  Single-family Distressed Home were 28% of total sales according to CAR.

RESALE CONDOS: June's median price was $220,000, up 4.8 percent from May and up 0.3 percent from one year ago.
Sales increased to 971, or 5.3 percent from May, but were down 16.5 percent year-over-year.

NEW HOMES: This category, the smallest slice of sales, showed the highest month-over-month increases in
sales and prices among the categories. The median price in June was $502,000, up 24.2 percent from May 
and up 16.5 percent from one year ago. There were 277 new-home sales, increasing 33.8 percent from May 
but down 34.2 percent from June of last year.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: More than 20,532 home were sold in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, 
San Bernardino and Orange counties in June, up 11.6 percent from May but down 14 percent June 2010. 
The month-over-month increase is more than usual for May-to-June. DataQuick officials said on average, 
sales between those months is have gone up 6.2 percent since 1988, when the company began to track housing
data.

June's median price for all six counties was $285,000, up 1.8 percent from May but down 5 percent from one
year ago. "Today’s median is also suppressed somewhat by abnormally low sales of newly built homes, which
typically sell for more than resale homes," this month's DataQuick report said.

Over all home sales fell 0.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million homes,
the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That's far below the 6 million homes per year that 
economists say represents a healthy housing market.

The Realtors' group said a record number of people who signed contracts canceled deals last month. And 
first-time buyers fell to a smaller share of the market.

Sellers have avoided selling their home due to declining home prices. The bad economy, loss of work has
also made people feel less wealthy and  has caused reduction in consumer spending that drives most of 
economic activity.

In the month of June about 16 percent of home deals were canceled and the main reason was appraisal value 
was less than the purchase price. Normally fifty percent of buyers are first time home buyer but there were
less in June. First time home buyers are vital since they purchase lower priced homes and that helps move
up sellers. 

Concern for home prices going down, tougher lending regulation, and higher down payments has made buyers
even with good credit and good down payments to stay out of market. 

Most economists say home prices will keep falling, by at least 5 percent, through the rest of the year.
Many forecasts don't anticipate a rebound in prices until at least 2013. I believe San Diego's real estate
will do better than most other market.