San Diego Home Prices Edge Upward

San Diego County home prices rose $5,000 to a median $330,000 in December after staying flat at $325,000 for four months, MDA DataQuick reported this week. Sales totaled 3,652, up 16 percent from November in the usual year-end burst of activity.

The latest median represented a 10 percent increase from a year earlier, the best such boost since April 2005 at the height of the real estate boom. It was up $50,000 or 17.9 percent from the $280,000 low reached in January but still far below the all-time high of $517,500 set in November 2005.

Single-family resales saw no change in the $365,000 median, though that figure was 9.8 percent higher than in December 2008. Sales totaled 2,185, up 20.7 percent from November and up 7.5 percent from December 2008’s 2,033. Sales typically rise in December as buyers and sellers seek to complete transactions before the end of the year. They then settle down in January and February before rising again in the spring and summer.

The resale condo median slipped to $219,750 from $225,000 in November but was up 12.7 percent from year-ago levels. Sales totaled 1,084, compared with 963 in November and 971 a year ago.

The new-home category, which includes both new construction and new condo conversions, turned in a median of $425,000, up 28.4 percent from November but down 12.8 percent from December 2008. It was the best month-to-month showing since August 1997 and possibly reflected a surge in closings of new, higher-priced single-family houses as developers sought to close out dwindling inventories in subdivisions.