SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Southern California home sales soared nearly 65 percent in September from a year earlier as bargain hunters seized on the region’s glut of foreclosures and depressed real estate prices, according to a report released on Monday by MDA DataQuick.
A total of 20,497 new and existing houses and condominiums were sold last month in the most populous region of the most populous U.S. state, marking a 64.6 percent jump from a record low last September, when the credit crunch hammered home financing.
The tally also was 5.8 percent above August levels, the real estate information service said in its report.
The upswing in sales last month underscored that bargain shoppers were out in force over the summer, trolling Southern California for deals on foreclosed homes, which continued to drag the region’s home prices lower, the report said.
Foreclosure resales rose to account for half of all sales in the region last month, which helped cut the region’s September median sale price to $308,500, down 6.5 percent from August and 33.2 percent from a year earlier.