Housing prices at 20 year low

Southern California's housing market woes deepened in January, when sales plunged to a 20-year low and prices fell regionwide, an industry tracker said Wednesday.

Sales of new and previously owned houses and condos tumbled 45 percent from January 2007, to 9,983 transactions, said La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems. Sales fell 24.6 percent from December. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

It's the fourth consecutive record low for DataQuick's database, which dates to 1988.

The median home price across the six-county region fell 14.4 percent to $415,000. January's median, the point at which half the homes cost more and half less, was just $1,000 above where it was two years ago.

Price declines last month ranged from 20 percent in Riverside County, hard hit by foreclosures, to 9.1 percent in San Diego County.