Department Name

Running counter to usual monthly trends, Valley housing sales surprisingly declined 16.5 percent over the past month.  Typically, sales start to increase in April, leading into the summer market.  San Fernando Valley year-over-year home sales are down again, TEN months in a row.  April’s units sold were 1187 units.  This is down 20.3 percent over a year ago.  Sales are down over the prior month and over the prior year in all seven Valley areas we track.  The smallest declines were in the Burbank/Glendale area and the largest yearly decline was in the Northeast Valley.  The 32.5 percent decline over the prior year in the Northeast Valley is a positive sign.  Northeast Valley sales have been driven by foreclosures and that segment of the market is subsiding.  On the sales side, it is looking like a slower than usual summer housing market.  We do not expect significant improvement until we see declines in the unemployment rate

                                                    April 2011                        March 2011                        April 2010 
SFV Home Sales                              1187                                  1421                                 1489
12 month Change                            -20.3%

The Valley’s April 2011 median price of a single-family, detached home was $399,500.  This is UP 3.8 percent from the median price of $385,000 in April 2010.  Valley median home prices peaked at $660,000 in May 2007.  Since then, the lowest median price level we observed was $347,500 in March 2009.  Despite the decline in sales, housing prices are holding or slightly rising.  We still anticipate some slow upward movement over the coming months.

                                                    April 2011                        March 2011                        April 2010 
SFV Median Price                         $399,500                           $382,000                           $385,000
12 month Change                             3.8%

Notices of Default (NODs) in April 2011, at 885, are DOWN 13.8 percent from April 2010.    NODs peaked in March 2009 at 2539 and have trended down since then.  NODs continue to remain highest in Olive View.  NODs are down in almost all Valley zip code areas.  With the exception of a 2.8 percent increase in January 2011, NODs have been down from the prior year, seventeen sequential months.
. 
                                                    April 2011                        March 2011                        April 2010          
SFV NODs                                          885                                  1131                                  1027     
12 month Change                            -13.8 %

April 2011 foreclosures were at 414.  This is DOWN 27.2 percent from the April 2010 level of 568.  Foreclosures peaked at 919 in June 2009.  Since mid-2009, foreclosures have trended down. Following the housing decline of the 1990s with foreclosures peaking in mid-1996, foreclosures trended down for the following four years.  We are currently following the same trend.  We anticipate continuing declines in foreclosures into 2012.

                                                    April 2011                        March 2011                        April 2010
SFV Foreclosures                              414                                   569                                   568
12 month Change                            -27.2%
LA County Foreclosures                      2,018                                2,653                                2,637    
12 month change                              -23.5%