According to DataQuick, the County's median home sale price slipped back to $150,000 in April. For the first four months of 2010, the median sale price has fluctuated between $150,000 and $152,000. The rush to qualify for the $8,000 homebuying credit caused sales to soar to 2,955 and 2,744 in March and April, respectively. With the end of the federal homebuying incentive program, sales volume may decline starting in May. In California, lower-priced units (<$300,000) are now selling very quickly (3.3-month supply), while the sales of higher-end homes are still somewhat restricted by the credit crunch in the jumbo loan market (9.7-month supply for those over $1 million). More recently, however, the jumbo loan market seems to have "thawed" a bit, and the unsold inventory index declined from 18.7-month supply in 4/'09 to 9.7-month supply in 4/'10.
In April, permits for 84 residential housing units were issued, compared to 260 issued in February and 121 in March. All 84 units were single-family residences (SFRs). (The revised March data showed that all 121 in March were SFRs also. April is the second consecutive month in which no permits for multi-family units were issued.) Activities were mostly concentrated in six cities: Rancho Cucamonga (23), Victorville and Twentynine Palms (9 each), Montclair (8), Fontana (7), and Chino Hills (5), and the unincorporated areas added another 16.
There were no new retail nor industrial building permits issued in April. Commercial office permit(s) valued at $309,000 was issued in Victorville. In March, we saw building permits issued in all three major categories of nonresidential construction for the first time in a year.
