Home sales at 20 year low

Home sales in the San Fernando Valley plunged a record 35 percent last year to their lowest level in more than two decades as fewer buyers qualified for loans amid the ongoing mortgage meltdown, a trade association said Monday. Gregory J, Wilcox in the Daily News.

Despite the steep sales slide to just 6,271 transactions, home prices managed to set an annual record as many sellers stayed put and refused to slash prices, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors said.

Still, as the median price edged up 1percent, to a record high of $611,833 for all of 2007, it declined and finished below $600,000 each month of the year's final quarter, the group said. In December, the median price dipped to $557,000, an annual loss of 12.4 percent, or $76,000.