The median-priced house in San Diego County sold for $420,000 last month, up $5,000 from November and an increase of nearly 15 percent from December 2012, according to San Diego real estate research firm Dataquick.
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For the six-county Southern California region the median price for all single family homes and condos sold last month was $395,000, up 22 percent from the prior year’s December median price.
While prices have steadily risen in San Diego, home sales fell over the full year to 3,099 for December 2013, down from 3,757 for December 2012.
Sales regionally declined 9 percent year-over-year to 18,415. But sales were up from November when the total was 17,283.
John Walsh, Dataquick’s president, said the main reason for the sales decline was the ‘pitifully low inventory.’
Walsh said he expects that as prices continue to rise, more people will be interested in selling, which will help the inventory crunch. “More supply would put downward pressure on prices, as would rising mortgage rates,” he said.
Cash buyers made up 27.7 percent of the total sales in the region, down from 28 percent in November, and down from 35.8 percent for the like month in 2012; cash purchases hit a peak in February 2012 when they made up 36.9 percent of that month’s sales, Dataquick said.
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