California home inventory, price up, but sales down

Homes are sitting on the market longer in California as sales continue to drop, the state's Realtor group said on Feb. 28.

Despite that, the median price was up 13.8 percent from 12 months ago to $551,300 in January, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Sales declined from January 2004 to January 2005 by 24.1 percent statewide -- 21.2 percent in the Santa Clara region, 35.9 percent in Monterey County and 31.2 percent in Santa Cruz County.

The median price was up 11.4 percent to $740,000 in Santa Clara, 10.5 percent to $685,000 in Monterey and 2 percent to $729,500 in Santa Cruz.

The unsold inventory index, which measures how long it would take to sell the current inventory of homes, has increased to six months from 3.2 months a year ago.

"We expected January sales to fall below the record that was set in January 2005," said association President Vince Malta in a prepared statement. "The decrease was intensified by interest rates crossing the psychological threshold of 6 percent in the last quarter of the year, and by weakness in consumer confidence due to the residual effects of Hurricane Katrina."

"However, interest rates remain near historic lows, and we expect sales activity to accelerate as we move into the traditional selling season," Malta said.