After reaching $507,500 in October, the median home price in San Diego retreated 2.5 percent in November to land at $495,000, the same level as in September, CoreLogic reported. Still, the median price in November was 5.6 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Unit sales were down as usual from October to November but soared 25.2 percent from year-ago levels to 3,427 transactions.

The median price for 2,119 resale single-family homes dropped $4,000 from October’s level to $549,000, as did 1,054 resale condos, down $10,000 to $375,000. There were 254 newly built homes — both houses and condos — sold for a median $651,500 down from $765,000 in October.

For all types of homes combined, the median in October stood at $507,500, the first time the figure had exceeded the half-million mark since mid-2006. The all-time peak was $517,500, reached in November 2005.

For the six-county Southern California region, the median price was unchanged from October at $465,000 and up 5.9 percent from $439,000 in November 2015.

In other findings regionwide, absentee buyers, mostly investors and second-home purchasers, made up 20 percent of all buyers, not far off the historical 18 percent average since 1988. Cash buyers accounted for 21 percent of all sales, down five percentage points from a year earlier. The long-term average is 16 percent.

Distressed sales, including short-sales and lender-owned properties, represented 4.7 percent of all Southern California sales, just about the same as in May 2007 before the housing bust sent many owners into foreclosure proceedings. At the peak of the down market in January 2009, 67.7 percent of all sales in the region were distressed properties.

On a year-over-year basis, San Diego in October was up 5.9 percent and the 20-city U.S. composite was up 5.1 percent.

“Home prices and the economy are both enjoying robust numbers,” said David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of S&P’s index committee.

Source: latimes.com by Roger Showley