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| 2004 California Housing Market: One for the Record Books |
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- While housing market statistics for
December will not be available until next month, the California residential
real estate market in 2004 will be one for the record books, according to the
California Association of REALTORS(R).
Here are some highlights:
* 2004 will be a record year for home sales, which are projected to
increase 3 percent over last year's record sales figure of
601,800 existing detached homes.
* 2004 will be a record year for home prices. The median price of a
single-family home in California crossed the $400,000 threshold late
in 2003, and will finish the year with an annual median in excess of
$450,000, 22 percent higher than the 2003 annual median of $372,700.
* The percent increase in the median price of a single-family home
increased by double-digits for the third consecutive year in 2004.
* C.A.R.'s Unsold Inventory Index reached a historic monthly low of
1.5 months in April 2004.
* Time on the market -- the median number of days it takes to sell a
single-family home -- was the third lowest on record at a projected
annual average of 29 days, surpassed only by 2003 at 27 days and
2002's all-time low of 26 days.
* C.A.R.'s Housing Affordability Index (HAI) fell to 19 percent in May,
the first time the index has hit the teens since December 1989. Since
that time, rapid price appreciation and marginally lower interest
rates have generally offset each other, keeping the HAI in the 18- to
19-percent range throughout the summer and fall of this year. If not
for unexpectedly low interest rates throughout much of the year, price
appreciation might have driven the HAI to historically low levels that
were last seen in May/June 1989 (14 percent).
* The affordability gap between California and the U.S. reached an
all-time annual high of 36 percent in 2004. Nationally, affordability
was at 56 percent in 2004, four points below its record high.
* New home building eclipsed the 200,000 mark in 2004 for the first time
in more than a decade, with an expected total of 206,000 permits for
the year. The last time the state exceeded 200,000 permits was in
1989, when 238,000 permits were issued. Yet this year's permit total
fell short of household growth, which is estimated at between
220,000 and 250,000 households in 2004.
* First-time homebuyers as a share of the total market fell to an
all-time low of 26 percent in 2004, based on C.A.R.'s annual Housing
Market Survey.
* The Boomer Generation exerted a tremendous influence on the California
housing market in 2004, accounting for three out of four transactions.
* Internet use by homebuyers and sellers continued to climb in 2004.
Based on C.A.R.'s Internet Versus Traditional Buyers Survey,
56 percent of all buyers used the Internet in a substantive way as a
part of their homebuying process, surpassing the 50 percent mark for
the first time.
* Forty-seven percent of homesellers indicated that they had used the
Internet in the homeselling-process, a dramatic increase from
12 percent in 2003, according to C.A.R.'s Survey of California Home
Sellers.
* Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased the single-family conforming
mortgage loan limit from $333,700 this year to $359,650 in 2005, which
could benefit more than 12,960 families in California. However, the
increase in the loan limit is still far too low to benefit most
homebuyers in California, as the median price of a home in California
is 28 percent higher than the new loan limits.
The California Association of REALTORS(R) (http://www.car.org) is one of the
largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than
155,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real
estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.
SOURCE California Association of REALTORS
back to topRelated links:
CONTACT:
Mark Giberson of California Association of
REALTORS, +1-213-739-8304, markg@car.org
