The median price of a previously owned San Fernando Valley home soared an annual 34.1 percent to a record $477,500 in April while tight inventory squeezed down sales, a trade group reported. .
During the last 12 months, the median-price single-family home appreciated $121,500 from $356,000, said the monthly market report from the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors.
Prices continued defying gravity, and in some cases logic, even as sales declined 8.3 percent to 1,154 units from year-earlier levels and 1.5 percent from March. A month-to-month decline is unusual for this time of year because the buying season typically kicks into gear, but the Realtors group attributed the drop to a tight inventory.
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“We would have hundreds more sales a month if the inventory was there,” said Jim Link, the group’s executive vice president.
This combination of record-high prices and low inventory — 1,931 active listings at the end of April — is making it hard for prospective buyers like Andreas and Ruth Gobor of Canoga Park to find that perfect home.
They are renting a house and for the past six months have been searching from the foothills of Sylmar to the West Valley for a home to buy.
In that time the median price — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — increased by $78,500, or about $450 a day. The median price increased $35,500 from March, when it was then a record $442,000.
“You’re looking at houses that are literally shacks. People want $395,000 for places you would not even have your dog live,” Andreas Gobor said. “It’s almost impossible to find a house for half a million [dollars] that you can actually live in.”
He is a set decorator so a less expensive condominium is not an option because he needs space to store work-related tools and equipment.
Even the condo market gets more expensive each month. During April the condo median price leaped 35.6 percent to a record $305,000, or a gain of $80,000.
People bought 393 homes last month, 8.3 percent fewer than a year ago.
“While all real estate professionals would prefer if prices were not escalating so fast, no one is predicting a major downturn in the market,” Link said.
Demand remains strong, and the current supply of properties for sale would last 1.3 months at the current sales pace. For a market the size of the Valley, a sales supply for five months or longer is considered necessary for a balanced market.
Interest rates have moved above 6 percent but are still low by historical standards.