In Glendale, home supply drops, prices rise
November 16, 2012|By Mark Kellam, mark.kellam@latimes.com
The number of homes and condominiums for sale in Glendale continues to lag compared with last year, according to the latest real estate figures.
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As for the rest of the real estate landscape, it was a mixed bag.
Even as the pool of available homes shrank, the number sold jumped by 57.5% — from 40 in October last year to 63 this year.
At the same time, the median price stumbled from $610,000 to $605,000.
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The number of condominiums for sale saw a steeper drop, from 118 to only 25 in the same year-to-year comparison — a whopping 79% decline.
The number of condos sold also decreased, but not as dramatically.
Twenty-four condos sold last month, down 25% from October 2011. Meanwhile, the median price rose from $252,000 to $312,000.
Also, the ratio of distressed homes that sold followed the downward trend seen nationwide, falling from almost 30% in October 2011 to 23% last month.
Bank-owned homes made up just 9.2% of total sales, while short sales — where a lender lets a homeowner sell a home for less than they owe on the mortgage — comprised almost 14%.
Banks are increasingly going with short sales, said Harout Keuroghlian, broker and chief executive of JohnHart Real Estate in Glendale.
Some lenders are even paying homeowners up to $40,000 to begin the short-sale process, he said.
It moves the home forward toward a sale, Keuroghlian said, “and it keeps the property in decent shape so it’s not vandalized.”
Also, some banks are still jittery about going with foreclosures because of investigations by the federal government about whether past foreclosures were handled properly.
Foreclosures can also involve a lot of complicated paperwork, Keuroghlian said.
“There’s so much red tape that it could be years before [a home] even hits the market,” he said.
In the La Crescenta-Montrose area, the number of homes for sale declined by 63% — from 84 in October 2011 to 31 last month, according to the statistics. The number of homes sold rose significantly, from 10 last October to 34 last month.
The median price showed a healthy gain, going from $466,000 in October of last year to $550,000 last month.
The ratio of distressed home sales dropped to about 36% last month, a dramatic decrease from 60% in October 2011.
In La Cañada Flintridge, 49 homes were for sale last month, a 35% decline. At the same time, the number of homes that sold rose by more than 38%, to 18 last month.
And the median price dipped under $1 million again, edging down to $958,000.
via In Glendale, home supply drops, prices rise – Glendale News-Press.
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