Home sales throughout Southern California had impressive gains last month which have not been seen in nearly three years. During the past year home values have dropped over 30% but with these huge discounts and state and federal tax incentives home buyers are beginning to flock back to the market.
Home sales overall are up by 13.8% from a year ago. MDA DataQuick reported this past Monday that leading this charge is Riverside County where home sales have jumped by 48.6%. Unfortunately, the only exception to this report was Los Angeles County which posted a 3.2% decline.
According to a recent survey foreclosures were the main reason for most people to get back into the market because there have been so many available bargains particularly in the hard hit areas like Riverside County.
Throughout the six-county region over 20,000 homes closed escrow last month which is the first increase in Southland sales since September 2005.
The exception to this upward trend is Los Angeles County which has not had as many foreclosures compared to Riverside County and has had much fewer discounted homes on the market which is why some economists feel that LA County had a small decline in sales versus its neighboring counties.
At the time of this article's posting the stock market is up over 130 points mainly being pushed up by the good news coming out of the housing market.