The press reports are certainly coming up with a lot of negative info these days.  Sales down 40%, prices down 15%, recession, no recession, and on, and on, and on.

What is going on in our neck of the woods? …La Canada, La Crescenta,  Sunland/Tujunga, Shadow Hills and the northern portions of Glendale?

The good news: The average price in the Foothills has only dropped by about 3% overall – vs. around 15% for LA County. This varies greatly throughout the various Foothill communities. For exact info on different neighborhoods, send me an email or leave me a comment here. While prices have been dropping, the length of time to sell a house has gone up dramatically – from an average of 67 days in 2007 to 94 days in 2008. The last piece of information is that the average size has gone UP. From 1744 sq. feet in 2007 to 1844 in 2008.

So, to summarize it’s taking an extra month to sell a home that’s 6% bigger than last year and get 3% less than last year. That’s what a buyer’s market looks like.

On the other hand… Foreclosures in the Foothills:
 
The chart above shows various stages of foreclosure activity in the Foothills.  The white columns indicate how many homes banks have taken title to each month – a total of 98 properties through March.  The blue column indicates the number of homes that are begining the process – which, as you can see, is rising,

In the following chart you can see the number of homes sold has gone down by about 50% from last year.  Even more troubling is the comparison of homes sold to the number of homes that banks have to sell.  The previous chart shows banks took about 98 properties so far this year in foreclosure.  Meanwhile a total of about 154 homes have sold.  In other words, 2/3 of the sales in the future will be bank-owned properties (if things continue at this rate).  This is putting tremendous pressure on prices.

So far, the local economy has not been a negative.  Let’s hope that our job picture remains healthy.

Home Sale info taken from iTech MLS; Foreclosure info courtesy of Chicago Title. Both are deemed reliable but not guaranteed