Southern California Home Sales Drop 4.5% as Buyers Hold Off on Purchases

A total of 18,090 houses and condominiums sold in July in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties, a 12 percent decline from June, the property research firm said today in a statement. The median price paid was $283,000, down 4.1 percent from July 2010 and the fifth consecutive decline on a year-over-year basis.

“Reports on the economy became increasingly downbeat and, no doubt, some people fretted over the possibility the country would default on its obligations,” John Walsh, president of San Diego-based DataQuick, said in the statement. “If there’s a shred of good news in the data it’s that last month’s sales weren’t much worse than a year earlier.”

Foreclosures and short sales, where the property sells for less than the amount owed, accounted for more than half of all Southern California deals last month. Transactions involving homes at $800,000 or more declined more than any other price category.

Properties in Los Angeles fell to a median $320,000, down 5.6 percent from a year earlier and the steepest decline among the six Southern California counties DataQuick tracks.