Foreclosures continue to push down sales

The wave of home foreclosures that swept over the Southern California real-estate market in 2008 pushed prices to five-year lows and sales to their lowest level in at least 20 years, an industry tracker said Monday.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

MDA DataQuick reported that 201,894 new and previously owned houses and condominiums were sold last year, 2,248 fewer than the previous 20-year low of 204,142 sold in 2007. DataQuick's records date back to 1988.

Foreclosures - which are expected to reach record highs when the counting is complete later this month - are to blame for price declines of 30percent or more across the six-county Southern California region, DataQuick said.