Report: Median Home Price Continues on 15-Month Decline

As median home prices in California cities continue to decline, home sales were up in Murrieta and the state in recent months—50 percent of them distress sales, according to a La Jolla-based real estate information service.

Single family homes sold last month in Murrieta numbered 183, but prices per square foot were down—7.2 percent in zip code 92562 and 3.8 percent in 92563—from December a year ago, according to an LA Times report.

Real estate information service DataQuick had not yet released home sales by city for December, but in November figures reported by the service showed the median price of a home in Murrieta was $258,000, with sales up 3.72 percent since November 2010.

The statewide median has decreased on a year-over-year basis for the last fifteen months, said Andrew LePage of DataQuick.

"The bottom of the current cycle was $221,000 in April 2009. The peak was $484,000 in early 2007," LePage said, in a news release.

He added that distressed property sales—the combination of foreclosure resales and "short sales"—once again made up more than half of California’s resale market.

Countywide, homes sales fell by 3 percent in December, compared to the same month a year ago, while prices also dipped by 3 percent, according to DataQuick.

A total of 3,584 homes changed hands in Riverside County last month, compared to 3,696 in December 2010, according to DataQuick. The median price of a home in Riverside County in December was $194,000, down from $200,000 in December 2010.

In Southern California, a total of 19,247 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in December, according to DataQuick. That was up 14 percent from 16,884 in November, but down 1.4 percent from 19,528 in December 2010.

The median price for a Southern California home was $270,000 last month, down 1.8 percent from $275,000 in November and down 6.9 percent from $290,000 in December 2010, according to DataQuick.

According to the California Association of Realtors, December's home sales in the state were at their highest level since January 2011, and up for the third straight month.

"With the economy slowly improving, home buyers, investors and first-time buyers alike took advantage of affordable interest rates and made a push to close escrow by the end of year," said CAR President LeFrancis Arnold. "Robust sales over the past few months signal the housing market is treading above water on its own in the first full year without the government stimulus that has helped housing in the last couple of years."

Maggie Avants contributed to this report.