O.C. house prices up 16%, Realtors report
December 18th, 2012, 11:59 am · · posted by Jeff Collins
Another housing market tracker reports steep gains in prices and sales of Orange County houses last month.
However, the California Association of Realtors warned that higher prices are tied in large part to a shift to sales of higher-priced homes as the supply of cheaper homes remains tight.
The median price of a detached single-family home in Orange County rose 15.9 percent in November, to $565,020, from the November 2011 median. That’s the fifth-highest median – or price at the midpoint of all sales – in the past four years, the Realtor association reported.
By comparison, DataQuick Information Systems reported last week that the O.C. median house price had increased 14.1 percent from year-ago levels, to $525,000.
The Realtor group said that Orange County house sales soared 30.1 percent in November from year-ago levels, to 1,531 units, compared with DataQuick’s sales tally of 1,841 units, up 23.1 percent
DataQuick sales figures tend to be higher because the research firm gets its figures from the county clerk-recorder’s office. The Realtors derive their figures from the multiple listing service database, which doesn’t include all sales.
