A total of 6,325 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 25.7 percent from 5,032 in February and up 29.1 percent from 4,898 in March 2008, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

Last year’s March was the slowest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. Last month was the third-slowest March of all time, ahead of last year and 6,210 sales in March 1995. March sales have averaged 9,025 and peaked in March 2004 at 12,645 sales.

“More than any other region, the Bay Area is waiting for so-called jumbo loans to come back on line. Even with prices off their peaks, most home purchases in the upper half of the market still require a mortgage for more than $417,000, which are far more difficult to come by. We think there’s a good chance those larger loans will become more available during the second or third quarter,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

“For now, the extent to which prices have fallen in the upscale markets is more difficult to gauge,” he added, “because many of those areas are essentially in hibernation, with scant sales.”

Mortgages for more than $417,000 were used to finance 19.0 percent of the Bay Area’s home sales last month, compared with more than 60 percent before the credit crunch hit in late summer 2007.

The use of government-insured FHA loans – a common choice among first-time buyers – represented a record 25.4 percent of all Bay Area purchase loans in March, up from 1.5 percent a year ago.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined fell to $290,000 last month. That was down 1.7 percent from $295,000 in February and down 45.9 percent from $536,000 a year ago. It was 56.4 percent below the peak median of $665,000 reached in June and July of 2007.

The drop in median price overstates the decline in the value of the typical Bay Area home, reflecting more the sluggishness of high-end sales, which are now under-represented in the statistics.

Last month 51.2 percent of all Bay Area resale homes had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months, down from 52.0 percent in February and up from 23.2 percent a year ago. By county it ranged from 11.5 percent in San Francisco to 70.0 in Solano.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales counts were estimated in Alameda and San Mateo counties.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,245 last month, down from $1,286 the previous month, and down from $2,553 a year ago. Last month’s typical mortgage payment, which assumes 20 percent down and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, was the lowest since February 1997 when it was $1,236. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are at an all-time low. They are 51.9 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 64.5 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is nearing its 2008 peak, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is at an all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying activity is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

The median price paid for a home last month was $223,000, down 0.4 percent from $224,000 in February, and down 37.7 percent from $358,000 for March a year ago. Around half the drop in median is due to depreciation, the other half due to shifts in the types of homes selling.

Of the existing homes sold last month, 57.4 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on. A year ago it was 35.5 percent.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $958. That was down from $976 in February, and down from $1,712 for March a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s mortgage payment was the lowest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. The payment was 54.4 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 63.1 percent below the current cycle’s peak in June 2006.

MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is nearing its 2008 peak, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is at an all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying activity is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

A total of 19,486 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 27.9 percent from 15,231 for the prior month, and up 52.1 percent from 12,808 for March 2008, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

An increase from February to March is normal for the season. Last month was the ninth in a row with a year-over-year sales increase. March last year was the slowest March in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. The March average is 25,138.

“We’re still waiting for the upper half of the mortgage market to open up. We know that sales of lower-cost housing, especially foreclosure resales in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, are driving today’s market. What we don’t know is how the recession has affected the more expensive neighborhoods,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

“Those neighborhoods are dormant right now, but when so-called jumbo financing becomes available, possibly before summer, we expect enough sales to close escrow to generate more meaningful price statistics. Of late the statistics haven’t represented the overall market. Rather, to a large extent they’re simply a reflection of what is selling – mainly distressed properties and homes in the more affordable neighborhoods,” Walsh said.

Jumbo loans of more than $417,000 accounted for just under 40 percent of all home purchases two years ago. Last month they accounted for just 10.0 percent.

At the same time, a common form of financing used by first-time home buyers in more affordable neighborhoods is near record levels. Government- insured, FHA mortgages made up 37.8 percent of all purchase loans in March, up slightly from a revised 37.5% in February and up from 10.1% in March last year.

Regionwide, foreclosure resales accounted for 55.4 percent of March’s resales activity, down from a revised 56.7 percent in February and up from 35.7 percent in March 2008.

The median price paid for a Southland home was $250,000 last month, the same as in January and February. That was down 35.1 percent from $385,000 for March a year ago. The median peaked at $505,000 in mid 2007.

Because of the lopsided sales mix profile, the decline in the median overstates the decline in home values. It appears that homes in older, more costly, neighborhoods have come down in value by about half as much as homes in newer, more affordable, neighborhoods.

MDA DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales for the last two days of March were estimated in Orange County.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,074 last month, down from $1,090 for February, and down from a revised $1,841 for March a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments were 50.8 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They were 59.7 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is nearing its 2008 peak, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is at an all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying activity is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

Foreclosure properties remained a powerful force in the Las Vegas market last month but their influence continued to erode gradually from last year’s record level. Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – fell to 62.0 percent of all resales in January, down from 63.3 percent in December and 72.5 percent a year ago, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Foreclosure resales peaked in April 2009 at 73.7 percent of the region’s resales, and have since declined each month.

A total of 3,367 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County) in January, down 36.7 percent from December but up 7.7 percent from a year earlier. A drop in sales between December and January is normal for the season, with the decline averaging 24.4 percent since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Las Vegas region stats begin. Last month’s 36.7 percent decline from December is the steepest on record, though other years have seen declines greater than 30 percent.

The January sales figures reflect deals that were struck largely during the holidays – late November through early January – and that closed escrow last month. The sales data show investors and first-time buyers were some of the most committed home shoppers during that holiday period. January saw month-to-month gains in the use of low-down-payment, government-insured FHA financing, commonly used by first-time buyers, as well as gains in the percentage of absentee buyers, the percentage of homes purchased with cash and the percentage of homes that had been “flipped” (sold twice in a short period).

January’s sales total was the highest for that month since January 2007, when 4,282 homes sold, but it was 6.7 percent lower than the average January sales tally back to 1994. Last month marked the 17th in a row in which total sales rose on a year-over-year basis, though last month’s 7.7 percent annual increase was the smallest during that 17-month stretch.

Sales of homes priced below $200,000 made up 78.7 percent of all January transactions, compared with 77.1 percent in December and 65.7 percent in January 2009.

The number of houses and condos that resold (excludes new homes) in January fell to 3,092, down 34.5 percent from December but up 7.4 percent from a year earlier to the highest point since 3,405 resales in January 2006. Resales have risen on a year-over-year basis for 21 straight months.

Sales of newly built homes, including condos and condo conversions, fell to 275 in January, down 53.7 percent from December but up 10.4 percent from a year earlier. It was the second-slowest January for new-home sales since at least 1994.

Given the typical new home sells for more than the typical resale home, the decline in new-home sales in January helped push the overall median sale price down from December.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas metro area in January was $125,750, down 2.5 percent from $129,000 in December and down 20.9 percent from $159,000 a year earlier. The year-over-year decline was the smallest since May 2008, when the median dropped 17.3 percent from a year earlier, to $239,900.

The overall median sale price has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 33 consecutive months and in January stood 59.7 percent below the peak $312,000 median in November 2006.

The median price paid for resale single-family detached houses – by far the region’s largest home-type category – held at $135,000 in January, the same as it had been since last October but down 18.2 percent from $165,000 a year earlier. The January resale house median was 56.8 percent lower than the peak $312,250 median in June 2006.

The median price paid last month for resale condos was $69,000, down from $73,000 in December and down 14.6 percent from $80,750 a year earlier. The resale condo median has been hovering a bit below or above $70,000 for the past nine months. January’s resale condo median was 66.0 percent below its $203,000 peak in July 2006.

An alternative price gauge – the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses – stayed parked at $76 in January. That’s the same as it’s been since last October but down 15.6 percent from $90 a year earlier. January’s figure was 60 percent below the June 2006 peak of $190 per square foot.

Meanwhile, foreclosure activity fell in January compared with December and a year ago. Public filings showed 1,667 single-family house and condo units were foreclosed on in Clark County last month, down 21.1 percent from December and down 39.2 percent from January 2009. Last month’s total was 55.2 percent lower than the monthly peak of 3,718 foreclosures in February 2009.

Foreclosure filings have seesawed month-to-month over the past year, and a single month’s rise or fall doesn’t necessarily indicate a new trend. The figures are based on the number of trustees deeds filed at the county recorder’s office.

In January, a popular form of financing used by first-time home buyers – government-insured FHA loans – accounted for 51.7 percent of all home purchase loans, up from 49.8 percent in December and 49.6 percent a year earlier. Absentee buyers purchased 43.0 percent of all Las Vegas–area homes sold in January, up from 40.3 percent in December and 33.8 percent a year earlier. January’s absentee buyers paid a median $101,000 for their homes, down from $109,836 in December and $125,000 a year earlier. Absentee buyers are often investors, but can include second-home buyers and others who, for various reasons, indicate at the time of sale that the property tax bill will go to a different address.

Buyers who appear to have used cash to purchase their homes accounted for 50.4 percent of all January sales, up from 45.5 percent in December and up from 38.8 percent a year ago, based on an analysis of public property records. The median price paid in these seemingly all-cash deals in January was $96,000. Specifically, these were transactions where there was no indication of a purchase mortgage recorded at the time of sale. Some of these “cash” buyers could have used alternative financing arrangements outside of a typical purchase mortgage, and in some cases they might be taking out mortgages after their purchases. All-cash deals have become popular in many Western markets where prices have dropped sharply and sellers favor the relative speed and certainty of cash transactions.

The flipping of homes has become more common, too. Last month 5 percent of the homes sold had previously been sold between three weeks and six months prior, up from a flipping rate of 3.9 percent in December and 3.2 percent a year ago.

Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA – corrected

There were continued signs of price stability for resale houses. The median price paid for existing single-family detached houses didn’t decline from the year-ago level for the first time since July 2007, though it slipped a bit from December. The median price paid per square foot for those resale houses was the same as in both December and a year earlier, marking the first time that price measure didn’t fall on a year-over-year basis since October 2006, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based firm that tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

It appears competition between investors and first-time buyers has helped shore up prices for resale houses. But the economy’s fate and the magnitude and timing of future foreclosures will determine whether recent stability can endure. The market could also face a test soon if some government efforts to stoke housing demand with lower mortgage rates and a homebuyer tax credit expire as planned.

Last month foreclosure resales continued to claim just over half of all Phoenix resales, but they remained well below last year’s peak level and held steady for the third consecutive month.

In January, 52.1 percent of the houses and condos that resold had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, virtually the same as 52.2 percent in December and November but down from 65.9 percent in January 2009. Such foreclosure resales hit a high of 66.2 percent of all homes resold last March.

A total of 6,227 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metropolitan area in January, down 29.4 percent from the month before but up 14.8 percent from a year earlier.

A decline in sales between December and January is normal for the season, with that decline averaging 22 percent since 1994, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. The larger-than-usual drop in sales between the two months likely reflects lost momentum in the market relative to last fall, when some people rushed to buy to take advantage of super-low mortgage rates, lower prices and an expiring tax credit, which wound up being extended. However, historically sales trends in January and February have not proven to be very helpful for forecasting purposes.

January’s total sales were the highest for that month since January 2007, when 9,396 homes sold.

Sales of homes priced below $100,000 rose last month to 32.9 percent of all sales, compared with 30.8 percent in December and 29.7 percent a year earlier.

Total home sales have increased on a year-over-year basis for 13 consecutive months. However, the number of houses and condos that resold (excludes new homes) has risen on an annual basis for 19 consecutive months. In January, 5,675 homes resold, down 26.8 percent from December but up 22.8 percent from a year earlier. It was the highest level of resales for a January since 7,231 homes resold in January 2006.

The number of newly built homes sold in January dived 48.7 percent compared with December, and fell 31 percent from a year earlier. Builders, who have had a difficult time competing with low-cost foreclosures, sold the least number of homes for a January since 1997.

Last month’s new-home sales fell to 8.9 percent of total sales, down from 12.2 percent of all sales in December and a monthly average of nearly 25 percent of total sales since 1994.

January’s shift toward fewer sales of new homes, which tend to cost more than resale homes, helps explain the month-to-month decline in the overall median sale price.

The median price paid in January for all new and resale houses and condos combined was $131,540, down 3.6 percent from $136,500 in December and down 7.0 percent from $141,480 a year earlier. It was the smallest year-over-year decline in the median sale price for any month since September 2007, when the median fell 5.6 percent below the prior year to $237,900.

Beyond the falloff in new-home sales, the overall median was tugged lower by a higher concentration last month of sales to investors, who typically purchase lower cost homes. Last month’s sales figures reflect deals that were struck during the holidays, when investors remained some of the most serious buyers, and then closed escrow in January.

January’s median was the lowest since the median was $130,000 last June, and it was 50.2 percent below the peak $264,100 median reached in June 2006. The median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 36 consecutive months. The low for the median in this cycle was $125,000 in April 2009.

The median paid last month for resale single-family detached houses was $130,000, down 2.1 percent from $132,750 in December but the same as in January 2009. It was 51.5 percent lower than the June 2006 peak of $268,000.

The median paid for resale condos in January was $95,000, virtually unchanged from $94,750 in December but down 24 percent from a year earlier and down 49.1 from an April 2007 peak of $186,500.

An alternative price gauge held steady in January: The median paid per square foot for resale single-family (detached) houses was $72, the same as in December and a year earlier. It’s been a long fall from the peak: The January figure stood 57.9 percent below its record level of $171 in June 2006.

Investors and first-time buyers continued to drive much of the resale activity last month. In January, 44.9 percent of all Phoenix-area home purchase loans were government-insured FHA mortgages, a popular choice among first-time buyers, according to an analysis of public property records. Absentee buyers purchased 39.2 percent of all homes sold in January, up from 38.5 percent in December, and paid a median of $115,000 last month. Absentee buyers are mainly investors, but include second-home buyers and others who indicate at the time of sale that the property tax bill will go to a different address.

Buyers who appear to have used cash to purchase their homes accounted for 40.6 percent of all January sales, up from 37 percent in December, based on an analysis of county property records. Last month’s cash buyers paid a median of $105,000. Specifically, these were transactions where there was no indication of a purchase loan recorded at the time of sale. Some of these “cash” buyers could have used alternative financing arrangements outside of a typical purchase mortgage, and in some cases these buyers might be taking out mortgages after their purchases. All-cash deals are popular in many Western markets where prices have dropped sharply and sellers favor the relative speed and certainty of cash transactions.

The “flipping” of homes has trended higher over the past year but dipped slightly last month, when 3.3 percent of all homes sold had previously been sold between three weeks to six months prior. The flipping rate was 3.9 percent in December and 2.1 percent in January 2009.

Foreclosure activity eased in January: The 4,942 single-family house and condo units foreclosed on in the Phoenix region represented an 18.6 percent decline from December’s peak level, but a 2.9 percent increase from a year earlier. The figures are based on the number of trustees deeds filed with the county recorder’s office. The document signals that a home was lost to foreclosure. The foreclosure totals can include units that the county assessor has designated condos, but are currently used as apartments (e.g. a 100-unit complex designated as condos but used as apartments could be foreclosed on and those units would be reflected in the foreclosure total for that month). For this reason and others, the number of foreclosure filings has seesawed month-to-month over the past year, and a single month’s increase or decline doesn’t necessarily indicate the beginning of a lasting trend.

The median price paid for a home last month was $247,000, down 6.4 percent from $264,000 in December, and up 10.3 percent from $224,000 for January a year ago. Because of shifts in market mix, the statewide median always drops from December to January. The January median’s year-over-year increase was the third in a row, following 27 months of year-over-year declines. The median peaked at $484,000 in early 2007 and hit a low of $221,000 last April.

Of the existing homes sold last month, 44.0 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was up from 40.8 percent in December and down from 58.2 percent in January a year ago. Foreclosure re-sales peaked at 58.8 percent last February.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,064. That was down from $1,125 in December, and up from $969 for January a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s mortgage payment was 50.1 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 59.6 percent below the current cycle’s peak in June 2006.

MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity has declined somewhat but remains high by historical standards. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, and non-owner occupied buying is up, MDA DataQuick reported.

A total of 4,853 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was down 38.0 percent from 7,828 sales in December and down 3.9 percent from 5,050 sales in January 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

A decline in sales between December and January is normal for the season. On average, sales have dropped 28 percent between those two months since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin.

Last month was the first since August 2008 in which sales fell on a year-over-year basis. January’s 4,853 sales total was 22.5 percent short of the average January tally – 6,261 – since 1988. Sales last month were also the second-lowest for a January since 1995, behind 3,586 sales in January 2007. The peak sales total for a January was in 2005, when 8,298 homes sold.

“The January figures show the market lost some of the momentum it had built up in the second half of ’09, when home buyers rushed to ensure they could take advantage of a tax credit, ultra-low mortgage rates and lower prices,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

“It’s difficult to gauge how much of the slowdown stems from a thinner inventory of homes for sale in some areas as opposed to lower demand,” he said. “Whether last month’s relatively weak performance portends any substantial, lasting changes in the market is unclear. One month doesn’t make a trend and, in the past, January hasn’t proven to be very predictive.”

The January sales figures are based largely on deals that were struck during the holidays (late November through early January) and that closed escrow in January. In the Bay Area and across California, the sales data indicate that investors and first-time buyers remained the most committed home shoppers, and that helped skew the sales toward foreclosures and other lower-cost properties.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos in the nine-county Bay Area last month was $350,000. That was down 7.9 percent from $380,000 in December but up 16.7 percent from $300,000 in January 2009.

Last month’s median was 20.7 percent higher than the lowest point reached in the housing downturn – $290,000 last March – but it was still 47.4 percent lower than the $665,000 peak median reached in June and July of 2007.

It’s not unusual for the Bay Area’s median sale price to fall between December and January. The average change between those two months over the past 22 years is a decline of 2.4 percent.

Last month’s median dipped more sharply from December as the portion of sales involving foreclosures and homes in lower-cost areas rose relative to December. However, the median remained higher than in January 2009 because a year ago low-cost foreclosures were far more plentiful, lower-cost inland areas represented a substantially larger portion of total sales, and high-end sales were extremely slow. All of that made for an unusually low January 2009 median of $300,000.

Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – rose to 36.6 percent of all homes resold last month, marking the second consecutive month in which foreclosure resales increased. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52 percent of resales in February 2009, then gradually fell and, in the fall, leveled off near 32 percent, rising slightly in December over November.

Though distress has certainly migrated up the price ladder, many foreclosed properties are still located in lower-cost inland suburbs and urban areas, where they spur resale activity. Total home sales in Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties combined rose to 59.7 percent of total Bay Area sales last month, up from 57.6 percent in December but down from 67.1 percent a year ago.

Among all homes sold last month, transactions under $300,000 made up 40.4 percent of sales, up from 34.5 percent in December but down from 47.9 percent in January 2009.

Meanwhile, homes selling for over $500,000 made up 31.1 percent of sales last month, down from 35.7 percent in December but up from 22.7 percent a year ago.

The availability of financing for pricier homes improved modestly in recent months, but such “jumbo” loans remain relatively expensive and hard to obtain.

Mortgages above $417,000 – formerly the definition of a jumbo loan – made up 27.8 percent of all home purchase loans last month. That was down from 29.9 percent in December but up from 17.1 percent a year ago. More than 60 percent of purchase loans were over $417,000 before the August 2007 credit crunch hit.

Another critical form of financing for higher-cost homes – adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) – continues to be used far less than what’s been normal historically. In January, 7.5 percent of Bay Area purchase loans were ARMs, down from 7.9 in December but up from a record low of 3 percent a year ago. ARMs averaged 61 percent of purchase loans between January 2000 and August 2007.

Financing has flowed more freely for low- to mid-priced homes. Federally-insured, low-down-payment FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, made up 27.1 percent of Bay Area purchase loans last month. That was up from 25.6 percent in December, 24.7 percent a year ago and 0.7 percent two years ago.

Last month absentee buyers purchased 19.1 percent of all Bay Area homes sold, up from 17.3 percent in December but down from 19.3 percent a year ago. Buyers who appeared to have paid all cash – meaning there was no corresponding purchase loan – accounted for 24.8 percent of January sales, up from 23.6 percent in December and 24.4 percent a year ago, based on an analysis of public records.

Home flipping has trended a bit higher, too. Last month 2.9 percent of the homes sold had previously been sold between three weeks and six months prior. January’s flipping rate varied from as little as 1.8 percent of sales in Sonoma County to as much as 3.5 percent in Solano County.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales were estimated in Alameda and San Mateo counties.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,508 last month, down from $1,619 the previous month, and up from $1,297 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 42.7 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 57.6 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is off its recent peak but remains high by historical standards, with mortgage default notices flattening or trending lower in some areas, but edging higher in others. Financing with multiple mortgages is low and down payment sizes are stable, MDA DataQuick reported.

A total of 15,361 new and resale homes closed escrow last month in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was down 31.2 percent from December’s 22,328, but up 0.9 percent from 15,227 in January 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

A decline in sales between December and January is normal for the season. On average, sales have fallen 28.4 percent between those two months since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin.

January’s 15,361 sales mark the highest total for that month since 18,128 sales in January 2007. However, last month’s tally was 14.4 percent below the average number of sales for a January – 17,938 – since 1988.

Last month the sales pattern shifted a bit, with a greater portion of transactions involving distressed properties and lower-cost inland homes. Meanwhile, sales in many pricier areas lost some of the steam they had built in recent months, though high-end sales still outpaced the year-ago level.

Foreclosure resales – houses and condos sold in January that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – made up 42.1 percent of all Southland resales, up from 39.6 percent in December but down from 56.4 percent in January 2009. Foreclosure resales hit a high of 56.7 percent last February, then tapered or leveled off month-to-month until they rose slightly in December, then again last month.

The rise in foreclosure resales helped push sales of homes priced below $300,000 up to 55 percent of all transactions last month, compared with 51.3 percent in December and 60 percent a year earlier. In the mid- to high-end, $500,000-plus home sales fell to 18.5 percent of all transactions, down from 20.6 percent in December but up from 13.6 percent in January 2009.

Over the last decade, $500,000-plus sales made up an average of 26 percent of monthly sales. Just before the credit crunch hit in August 2007, making larger “jumbo” mortgages more expensive and harder to obtain, $500,000-plus sales represented just over half of Southland transactions.

“The January stats underscore just how atypical this market remains. A huge chunk of what’s selling is still distressed. Investors and first-time buyers continue to dominate many areas, while the move-up market has yet to kick in. For many, the financing to buy high-end homes remains difficult, if not impossible, to obtain,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

“High-end sales aren’t nearly as sluggish as a year ago, but they lost traction over the holidays, which can be seen in the January closing data,” he said. “Whether significant new patterns are emerging in the market is unclear. We try not to over-analyze one month’s data, and historically January and February haven’t been the best indicators for the year ahead.”

The median paid for all Southland houses and condos sold in January was $271,500, down 6.1 percent from $289,000 in December but up 8.6 percent from $250,000 a year earlier. It was the median’s second consecutive year-over-year increase. In December 2009 the median rose 4 percent from a year earlier, marking the first time the median had increased year-over-year since August 2007, when it rose 2.7 percent to $500,000, near its all-time peak. In late 2008 and early 2009, the year-over-year declines in the median ranged from 30 to 40 percent.

On a month-to-month basis, the median had increased or held steady for eight consecutive months before dropping 6 percent in January compared with December. January’s median was 46.2 percent lower than the peak Southland median of $505,000 reached during several months in early and mid 2007.

Part of the January median’s drop from December can be explained by the shift toward a higher portion of Southland sales occurring inland: The percentage of sales that were in the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino counties) rose to 35.2 percent, up from 32.3 percent in December and the highest since it was 36.3 percent in May 2009.

Last month offered no signs of improvement in the jumbo mortgage market, which fuels sales in the higher-cost coastal areas. Mortgages above $417,000 – formerly the definition of a jumbo loan – accounted for 14.2 percent of all home purchase loans, down from a 13-month high of 16.7 percent in December 2009. Such jumbo loans made up nearly 40 percent of purchase loans before the August 2007 credit crunch.

Another gauge on the state of financing for high-end sales showed no change last month from December: 4.4 percent of purchase loans had an adjustable rate, the same as in December but up from 2.2 percent a year earlier. Use of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) remains extremely low in an historical context. Over the last decade, ARMs averaged 40 percent of monthly purchase loans.

Government-insured FHA loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, accounted for 36.9 percent of all home purchase mortgages in January. That’s down from 42.2 percent a year ago but up from 5.7 percent two years ago and up from 0.4 percent three years ago.

Absentee buyers – mostly investors and some second-home purchasers – bought 22.3 percent of the homes sold in January. That was up from 19.8 percent in December and up from 16.6 percent a year earlier. It was the highest for any month since at least 2000. San Bernardino County saw the highest percentage – 30.2 percent – sold to absentee buyers last month.

Buyers who appeared to have paid all cash – meaning there was no indication of a corresponding purchase loan being recorded – accounted for 28.9 percent of January sales, based on an analysis of public records. That’s up from 25.7 percent in December and up from 22 percent in January 2009. January’s figure was the highest since at least 1988. The 22-year monthly average for Southland homes purchased with cash is 13.9 percent.

Home “flipping” also trended higher in January, when 3.5 percent of the homes sold were ones that had previously sold between three weeks and six months prior. January’s flipping rate varied from as little as 2.3 percent of all sales in San Diego County to as much as 4.5 percent in Ventura County. A year ago no Southland county had a flipping rate over 2.1 percent.

MDA DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,170 last month, down from $1,231 in December, and up from $1,081 a year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, current payments were 47.0 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They were 56.6 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards, although mortgage default notices have flattened out or trended lower in many areas. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, and down payment sizes are stable, MDA DataQuick reported.

Two counties – Orange and San Diego – posted modest year-over-year increases in their overall median sale price last month. It was the second consecutive gain for Orange County and the first in more than three years for San Diego. Both counties also posted small annual gains the past two months in their median price paid for resale single-family detached houses.

Last month 22,132 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was up 2.8 percent from 21,539 in September and also up 2.8 percent from 21,532 a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

October marked the 16th month in a row with a year-over-year sales gain, although last month’s was the smallest of those increases. The 2.8 percent uptick in October sales from September wasn’t unusual, given sales have increased between those two months in half of the years – including 2007 and 2008 – since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. The average change between September and October is a decline of just under 1 percent.

Last month’s sales were the highest for an October since 2006, when 23,745 sold, but were still 9.5 percent lower than the historical October average of 24,458 sales. Since 1988, October sales have ranged from a low of 12,913 in October 2007 to a high of 37,642 in October 2003.

Sales increases over the last two months can be partially attributed to the recent increase in short sales, which take longer to close escrow. The result is that some summer deals that might normally have closed earlier instead closed in September and October.

Other factors driving home sales higher of late: A rush by some to take advantage of the federal tax credit for first-time buyers, which was initially set to expire at the end of this month but was recently extended and expanded. Also, mortgage rates remain extremely attractive and, combined with home price declines, have boosted housing affordability.

A critical financing source for first-time buyers purchasing lower-cost homes, especially foreclosures, has been the federally-insured FHA loan. FHA mortgages accounted for 38.3 percent of all Southland purchase loans last month, compared with 32.5 percent a year ago and just 2 percent two years ago. FHA’s share of purchase loans varied last month from 26.2 percent in Orange County to 49.2 percent in Riverside County. They offer down payments as low as 3.5 percent and relatively lenient qualifying standards.

“The government is playing a huge role in stabilizing and, to some extent, reinvigorating the housing market,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president. “Its actions have triggered ultra-low mortgage rates, plentiful low-down-payment (FHA) financing, an extended and expanded tax credit for home buyers, and programs and political pressure aimed at reducing foreclosures.”

“The real question now is how well can the market perform next year as some of the government stimulus disappears,” he continued. “The more upbeat outlooks suggest a strengthening economy and job market will help pick up the slack, and that demand for lower-cost foreclosures will remain robust. The more negative forecasts assume, among other things, a much slower economic recovery, more foreclosures than the market can readily digest, and more turbulence in the credit markets.”

The latter outlook suggests today’s market stability is contrived and will prove short-lived – nothing more than a temporary price plateau – while the former suggests home prices are currently at or near bottom.

In October, the median price paid for a Southland home was $280,000, up 1.8 percent from $275,000 in September but down 6.7 percent from $300,000 in October 2008. It was the median’s smallest annual decline for any month since September 2007, when the median fell 4 percent from a year earlier. September 2007 – one month after the current credit crunch hit – marked the beginning of a 26-month streak of year-over-year declines in the median price.

The region’s overall median sale price has risen or held steady on a month-to-month basis ever since it dropped to a more-than 7-year low of $247,000 in April. Last month the median was 44.6 percent lower than the peak $505,000 median reached during several months in early and mid 2007.

Orange County logged a 3.9 percent annual gain in its overall median last month and a 1.9 percent increase in its resale single-family house median. San Diego County saw a 0.5 percent annual increase in its overall median price and a 2.9 percent gain in its median for resale houses.

Another price gauge analysts watch, the median paid per square foot for resale single-family houses, has risen or held steady for the past six months. In October it was $170 for the six-county area, the same as in September but 9.5 percent lower than a year earlier. The figure hit a low this year of $147 in April.

Recent month-to-month and year-over-year gains in the median sale price reflect, in large part, a shift of late toward foreclosures representing a lower percentage of sales. It’s mainly the result of lenders and loan servicers increasingly steering distressed borrowers into either an attempted short sale or loan modification. This reduction in foreclosures is key because over the past two years foreclosed properties were often the most aggressively priced on the market.

Last month, foreclosure resales – houses and condos sold in October that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – made up 40.6 percent of all Southland resales. That was up insignificantly from 40.4 percent in September and down from a high of 56.7 percent in February this year.

As sales of lower-cost foreclosures began to wane earlier this year, sales in higher-cost neighborhoods picked up. High-end homes began to account for a greater share of all sales and helped reverse the steep slide in the median price. Over the past few months, however, the high-end’s share of total sales has flattened out.

In October, sales of homes priced $500,000 and above fell to 18.5 percent of all sales, up from a low this year in April of 13.4 percent but down from 20.2 percent in September and 19.6 percent a year earlier. In October 2007, $500,000-plus sales were 41.1 percent of all sales.

Availability of financing for pricier homes appeared to improve in recent months, but the “jumbo” loans that many high-end buyers require remain relatively expensive and difficult to obtain.

Mortgages above $417,000 – formerly the definition of a jumbo loan – made up nearly 40 percent of purchases before the August 2007 credit crunch hit. Last month they accounted for 15.1 percent, the same as in September but up from 13.3 percent a year ago and a 2009 low of 9.3 percent in January.

MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southland buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,196 last month, up from $1,189 for September, and down from $1,470 in October a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments were 46.0 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They were 55.8 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards, although mortgage default notices have flattened out or trended lower in many areas lately. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, and non-owner occupied buying is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

Source: DQNews.com Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157 or John Karevoll (909) 867-9534

A total of 111,689 default notices were sent out during the July-through-September period. That was down 10.3 percent from 124,562 for the prior quarter, and up 18.5 percent from 94,240 in third quarter 2008, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

The number of recorded default notices peaked in the first quarter of this year at 135,431, although that number was inflated by deferred activity from the prior four months.

“It may well be that lenders have intentionally slowed down the pace of formal foreclosure proceedings. If so, it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s because they’ve concluded that flooding the market with cheap foreclosures in this economic environment may not be in their best financial interest. Trying to keep motivated, employed homeowners in their homes might be the most cost-efficient way to stem losses,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

The median origination month for last quarter’s defaulted loans was July 2006, the same as during this year’s first and second quarters. A year ago the median origination month was June 2006, so the foreclosure process has moved one month forward during the past 12 months.

“There’s a batch of truly nasty loans that were made in mid 2006. There’s another batch made in late 2006. These are worse than the mortgages before and after, and it’s taking a long time to process them,” Walsh said.

The lenders that originated the most loans that went into default last quarter were Countrywide (7,583), Washington Mutual (5,146) and Wells Fargo (4,425). Along with Bank of America (1,979) and World Savings (4,237), they were also the most active lenders in the second half of 2006. Last quarter’s default rate on loans originated in the second half of 2006 ranged from 1.7 percent for Bank of America to 11.9 percent for World Savings.

Smaller subprime lenders had far higher default rates for that period: ResMAE Mortgage was at 73.9 percent, Ownit Mortgage 69.5 percent, BNC Mortgage 61.4 percent, Argent Mortgage 59.9 percent and First Franklin 59.4 percent. While these and most other subprime lenders are long gone, their loans were bundled, resold and now live on as “troubled assets”.

Indeed, many, if not most, of the loans made in 2006 are owned and/or serviced by lending institutions other than those that made the loans. The servicers pursuing the highest number of delinquencies last quarter were ReconTrust Co, Quality Loan Service Corp and Cal-Western Reconveyance Corp.

While most foreclosure activity was still concentrated in affordable inland communities, the foreclosure problem continued to slowly migrate into more expensive areas. The state’s most affordable sub-markets, which represent 25 percent of the state’s housing stock, accounted for 52.2 percent of all default activity a year ago. In third-quarter 2009 it fell to 42.9 percent.

On primary mortgages, California homeowners were a median five months behind on their payments when the lender filed the notice of default. The borrowers owed a median $12,665 on a median $343,200 mortgage.

On home equity loans and lines of credit in default, borrowers owed a median $3,948 on a median $62,800 credit line. However the amount of the credit line that was actually in use cannot be determined from public records.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Notices of Default are recorded at county recorders offices and mark the first step of the formal foreclosure process.

Although 111,689 default notices were filed last quarter, they involved 108,372 homes because some borrowers were in default on multiple loans (e.g. a primary mortgage and a line of credit). Multiple default recordings on the same home are trending down, DataQuick reported.

Mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin and Santa Cruz counties. The probability was highest in Merced, San Joaquin, and Riverside counties.

Trustees Deeds recorded, or the actual loss of a home to foreclosure, totaled 50,013 during the third quarter. That was up 9.5 percent from 45,667 for the prior quarter, and down 37.1 percent from 79,511 for third-quarter 2008, which was the all-time peak.

In the last real estate cycle, Trustees Deeds peaked at 15,418 in third-quarter 1996. The state’s all-time low was 637 in the second quarter of 2005, MDA DataQuick reported.  There are 8.5 million houses and condos in the state.

Foreclosure re-sales continued to decline as a market factor, accounting for 42.8 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. It was 49.9 percent the prior quarter, and a year ago it was 47.5 percent. It peaked at 57.8 percent in the first quarter of this year. Foreclosure re-sales varied significantly by area last quarter, from 9.6 percent in San Francisco County to 70.2 percent in Merced County.

Of the homes foreclosed on statewide in an 18-month period ending this July, about 82 percent have re-sold on the open market, while 18 percent, or more than 57,000 homes, have not. Of those that have not re-sold, it cannot be determined from public records what portion is currently being marketed for sale, as opposed to, among other things, being used as rentals or being left vacant and not for sale. Over the past year California buyers have snapped up an average of nearly 18,000 foreclosure re-sales a month.

A year ago the percentage of foreclosures that had not yet re-sold was about twice as great, while the number of unsold foreclosures from the 18-month period ending in July 2008 was about 50 percent higher than it is now.