Sales Increase Breaks Record, Prices Slide

Published: Monday, October 20, 2008 2:29 PM PDT

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In September, 56.4 percent more homes sold in San Diego County than had sold in September 2007, marking the largest year-over-year sales jump on record, according to data released this morning by MDA DataQuick. (In September 2007, sales plunged to the lowest monthly rate in 11 years after the credit crunch took hold of the mortgage market in August.)

About 47 percent of the 3,366 sales last month were houses or condos that had been foreclosed on at some point in the previous year. That compares to 12 percent of the sales in September 2007.

John Walsh, the firm's president, warned that the numbers for Southern California were likely as sunny as it'll get for a while. From a press release:

"You have to view last month's sales in the proper context," he cautioned. "They represent escrow closings, which reflect purchase decisions made in mid-to-late summer. That was before the dramatic worsening of the nation's economic crisis in recent weeks. Over the next few weeks our sales data will begin to show how the meltdown in financial markets this fall has impacted housing demand."

That portion of the sales does not include short sales, homes selling for less than is owed on the mortgage. Such sales are notoriously slow because sellers have to get bank approval; those sales have cast a shadow on the rest of the real estate market.

The median price paid for any kind of home in the county dropped to $328,000 in September, reaching the lowest point for that measure since June 2002, when the median was $320,000.

The next Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, for August, comes out next Tuesday.

-- KELLY BENNETT

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