Foreclosures push Inland home sales up, median prices down | Business | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Inland home sales continued to rise amid falling prices in July as bargain hunters locally and throughout Southern California bought up foreclosure properties in affordable neighborhoods, research firm DataQuick Information Systems reported Monday.

While the number of resale homes sold rose almost 50 percent in Riverside County and 25 percent in San Bernardino County, median prices in both counties dropped 35 percent from a year ago. Slightly more than 4,100 homes were sold in Riverside County at a median price of $260,000, and a little more than 2,500 properties were sold in San Bernardino County, where the median price was $230,000.

Southern California as a whole saw unit sales rise 13.8 percent while prices dropped 31 percent.

“What we’re looking at is a fire sale of properties in newer affordable neighborhoods that were bought or refinanced near the price peak with lousy mortgages,” said DataQuick President John Walsh.

“What we’re still not seeing is this level of distress spreading to more expensive or established neighborhoods,” he added.

While foreclosure sales accounted for 43.6 percent of all of July’s Southland sales, DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said they were an even more dominant factor in the Inland region. They accounted for 64.2 percent of sales in Riverside County and 58 percent in San Bernardino County, and that trend could continue for several months.