INLAND EMPIRE – If High Desert housing sales remain sluggish, it may have something to do with how coastal housing costs have pushed low-income buyers inland, according to economist John Husing.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune reporter Kevin Smith covered Husing at last week’s 4th Annual Economic Recovery & Job Creation Summit in downtown Los Angeles, quoting the Inland Empire economist as saying that recent housing costs have been pushed to extreme in coastal areas, so developers have been forced to build inland.
“That has transferred the least educated and poorest people to our inland areas,” Husing said at the Dec. 5 summit hosted by the Southern California Association of Governments.
Husing’s numbers demonstrated that 3.2 million residents in SCAG’s region – which includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Ventura and Imperial counties – are living in poverty, according to Smith’s report.
Smith also noted that speakers at the summit said logistics growth is being hampered by stringent EPA standards, manufacturing has been slowed by stiff regulatory standards and international competition, and construction has been slowed by the large number of homes that are still underwater in the Inland Empire.
Read Smith’s article in full at sgvtribune.com/business.
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Closer to home, Larry Trombley of Century 21 Rose Realty in Hesperia shared his numbers with the Bee, putting the Victor Valley housing market in the ballpark of Husing’s theory.
Trombley, who has been tracking High Desert prices for 17 years, said 267 homes were sold in the Victor Valley out of 736 that were up for sale in November 2013. This is a ratio of 1 out of 3 that were sold, he said.
November closed sales for homes were down from October by 24 percent, and down from November 2012 by 19.6 percent. These November 2013 closed sales include 11 percent that were bank owned, with 53 percent of them vacant. Trombley also noted that 28 percent were cash sales.
November prices were up from October by 0.5 percent, and up from November 2012 by 24.3 percent. Trombley also said that November’s inventory was up from October by 5 percent, and up from November 2012 by 33.8 percent. The November inventory included 10 percent that were bank owned, and 41 percent were vacant.
According to his report, “The Pulse of High Desert Real Estate,” the average home size of those sold in November were 1,918 square feet at an average sales price of $173,124 for $90.26 per square foot.
Trombley said his numbers are compiled from the Victor Valley Multiple Listing Service, and that the information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
For more information on Trombley’s “The Pulse of High Desert Real Estate,” visit his site at c21larry.com.
