Home Prices Plummet in South Bay

Local home prices fell in January as inventories rose, a sign that the housing market is still struggling to pull out of it's funk. The median price of a local SFR fell 25.4 % to $462,500 last month compared with a year earlier, according to the South Bay Association of Realtors. The report does not include the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Inglewood. The median price is the middle figure where half of homes sold for more and half for less. In a promising sign, sales rose 32.33% to 176 year over year. However, units for sale rose 10.4% to 1,168, possibly indicating that demand is not keeping up with supply. For condominiums and townhomes, the median price fell 10.04 % to $425,000. Sales fell 10.47% to 77, while inventory rose 13.27% to 734. "Given the higher number of sold single-family homes combined with decreased prices, more buyers may be responding to the current market in the S0uth Bay," Caren Greenwood, president of the local Realtors group, said in a statement. "The increased sales volume did not carry over to condominiums and townhomes last month" The South Bay has been up and down in the past few months, but there has been no major "change or shift that I have seen," said John Parsons, of Horrell Realtors in Redondo Beach. "In the broadest terms, it seems to me that prices are holding,"said Parsons, former Redondo Beach City Council member who sits on Planning Commission. Parsons said he didn't expect any major changes in the local housing market as conditions appear "pretty steady." Statewide, home sales rose for the third straight month in January as prices fell, according to a seperate report from the California Association of Realtors. California sales of existing single-family homes rose 2.5% compared with a year earlier. That was the first year-over-year sales increase since May 2010. The statewide median price was $278,900, down 2% from a year earlier.