Tomorrow's Housing Story Today (Sort of)

Here's part of tomorrow's housing story:

The South Bay housing market continued its skid in March, with every local city and community cited in a new report seeing a drop in median home price.

The South Bay, excluding the Palos Verdes Peninsula, saw an 8.5-percent year-over-year drop in median home price to $599,500 in March, the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors reported Friday.
The Hill saw a drop of 1 percent to $1,225,000 in March.

The median price refers to the middle figure where half of homes sold for more and half for less.
Housing prices have been dropping statewide and across the nation as fewer buyers are able to qualify for home loans amid a tightening of qualification standards and a souring economy.

“It hasn’t been this tough in the South Bay for a while,” said Adolph James, a Realtor with Shorewood Realtors in Manhattan Beach.

James said he recently took a “knockout listing” in Rancho Palos Verdes off the market after about four months because the seller gave up.

Most South Bay cities cited in the report posted double-digit losses.
Hawthorne’s median home price plunged 27.4 percent to $429,500 in March. Carson’s median dropped 16.6 percent to $417,000.

San Pedro, Inglewood and Torrance also fell by double digits. Torrance saw a drop of 10.6 percent to $532,500.

Because of the relatively low number of homes sold during a single month in any individual South Bay city, the median price can skew up or down depending on what types of homes are selling during that period.

Last month, Redondo Beach was the only South Bay city in the report to post a tiny drop in the median price, down a mere 0.8 percent to $774,000.