Valley home sales hit new low

December capped a dismal year for the San Fernando Valley housing market as prices crumbled under a record wave of foreclosures to their lowest level in five years, a research center said Tuesday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

A total of 7,725 Valley families lost their homes in 2008, a 158 percent jump over the previous year, as the credit crisis continued to take its toll.

The glut of homes on the market pushed down the median price in December to $375,000 - a whopping 43 percent under the record high of $660,000 reached just last May.