California housing market posts gains in July

The median home price in California rose to near a four-year high in July as more expensive homes sold and fewer foreclosures were purchased in the key Southern California and San Francisco Bay Area markets.

The Golden State’s median home price increased 2.6% fromJune and 11.5% from July 2011 to $281,000, real estate firm DataQuick reported. It was the fifth consecutive month that the median has risen year over year and the highest point for the measure for any month since September 2008.

Sales fell 3.7% from June, part of a normal seasonal decline. Sales were up 13.9% from the same month last year, as 39,507 newly built houses and condominiums sold statewide last month.

Sales of so-called distressed homes – foreclosures and short sales, in which the lender allows a property to be sold for less than what is owed – accounted for 41.0% of the market last month, down from 43% in June and 51.8% in July 2011.

In the Southland, the region’s median home price hit $306,000, a 2% increase from June and up 8.1% from July 2011. Sales fell 6.7% from June but were up 13.8% from July 2011. A total of 20,588 newly built and previously owned houses and condos sold in the six-county region.

In the Bay Area, the median home price hit $421,000 last month, up 1% from June and 12.6% from July 2011. Sales fell 1.4% from the previous month but were up 22.9% from a year earlier. A total of 8,461 homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area.

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