Stat of the Day: Southern California home sales up 65% from last year

Now this did occur before the Oct melt down in the financial markets, but it's a very encouraging that the price drops have finally led to more buyers. According to this LA Times story the median price is down 33% from the peak last year. Sales were also up from August and the hardest hit county of Riverside saw the biggest sales increase of 106%. Doesn't appear that there is a lack of qualified buyers when the price hits an attractive level. Thats an estimated $6B worth of new mortgages and roughly $9B as the original value that just left the books of weak mortgage holders and ended up in the hands of strong, financially solid holders.

• The median Southern California home sales price was $308,500 in September, the lowest since May 2003 and down 33% from the September 2007 peak of $462,000
• The number of homes sold in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and San Diego counties shot up 65% compared with September 2007.
• A total of 20,497 homes closed escrow in the Southern California in September, up 5.8% from 19,366 in August.
• Sales were up most in Riverside County, which posted a 106% gain from the same month a year ago. Riverside and San Bernardino counties also recorded the steepest year-to-year price declines in the region, with the median sales price down 37% compared with a year ago.