Valley home sales edge upwards

Home sales in the San Fernando Valley increased slightly in April from a year earlier, the first annual uptick in 30 months and a sign that the worst of the real estate slump might be over, a trade association said Thursday. Gregory J Wilcox in the Daily News.

But prices continued to tumble with the median falling 26 percent from a year ago, to $465,000, said the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. The median price has fallen $160,000 in the past 12 months, an amount equal to the median price in March 1997.

"There is a general feeling that the market may have hit bottom and started to rebound - definitely on the transaction side but not on the price side," said Jim Link, the group's executive vice president.