Single family Ventura homes for sale have increased while levels for Oxnard and Camarillo appear to be relatively constant.  In January, about 180 homes were sold in these 3 cities, which would put our inventory level at about a 3 month supply. Inventory levels in other parts of the country are substantially higher (10 months or more) but our lower levels are still making entry level priced homes very competitive among buyers, with multiple offers still common. Here are the inventory level numbers.

Ventura homes for sale inventory levels (homes actively for sale on the MLS) are at the lowest level we’ve seen all year, whereas Oxnard homes for sale have seen an increase in inventory. Camarillo’s inventory of homes for sale has seen a relatively sharp increase this month. Here are the hard numbers.

Homes for sale in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo reached the lowest inventory levels we’ve seen all year. We take a “snapshot” at the beginning of each month to see how many active listings are on the market for both single family homes and condos. Here are the numbers. I believe this low number reflects the big push for first time home buyers in the market and a reduced number of distressed properties. The big question – how will the new extension of the first time homebuyer credit (plus the $6,500 credit for move up buyers) affect our market?

The number of foreclosures is continuing to slow down in Ventura County. ForeclosureListService.com publishes a running total going back over 10 plus years, and they show a drop from a high of 1,109 in March to 681 in September. A lot of these are the result of flushing out the sub-prime loans, but there’s great concern going into 2010 that the economy (and lost jobs) will continue to keep the numbers high.

I just pulled the number of active homes for sale in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo this afternoon and inventory levels remain tight, especially at entry levels where competition is fierce and multiple offers are not uncommon.  The number of Ventura homes for sale increased, but Oxnard has seen a drop in inventory from September. With first time buyers scrambling to get into (and close) escrow by the end of November, it’s like shopping for blue light specials at K-Mart. Distressed sales continue to pace the marketplace, but we’ve noticed that prices are firming. We’ll be pulling the sales data for September over the weekend and publishing the data next week!

The annual California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) convention is underway in San Jose and yesterday the Association published their “2010 California Housing Market Forecast”.  They believe the median price in CA will rise 3.3% next year, and that the number of sales will decrease by 2.3%.

In comments with the report’s release, the President of C.A.R. stated “California’s housing market continued its strong sales rebound this year, resulting from the continued pace of distressed properties coming to market. This follows two years of double-digit sales declines in 2006 and 2007. Looking ahead, we expect sales to moderate to a more sustainable pace.”

“After experiencing its sharpest decline in history, we expect the median price to rise modestly next year. 2010 will mark the beginning of the ‘new normal’ for California’s housing market. This ‘new normal’ likely will feature a steady stream of sales driven by distressed properties in the low end of the market, coupled with moderate home-price appreciation.”

Inventory Levels for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo declined slightly compared to a reading a month ago in August. The inventory levels are  only a snapshot because inventory changes all the time every day – new listings come on the market and others close escrow. These numbers are for active listings, not homes in escrow, etc. The low numbers are reflected in the competitive bidding for entry level homes which are still being driven by distressed sales (REOs and short sales).

Just like last week’s LA Times front page article, we’re starting to see lots of media attention given to stabilization and rising prices throughout the country. Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article entitled “A Toe in the Water”, which was more about long term investing, and a sub heading called “The Case for Real Estate”. Also, today’s Case-Shiller report indicated that for the first time in 3 years prices rose about 3% over the previous quarter, another strengthening sign things are turning around. Next week we’ll be checking our local statistics to see what August looked like.

Leslie and I were out of town for a couple days last week, and while skimming the few days of back issues of the Los Angeles Times I noticed the main headline for Wednesday proclaimed “Southern California home sales and prices rise in July”. Followers of our blog know that prices of homes in our area bottomed out this spring and have been trending upward. But you also know foreclosures and distressed sales are still keeping rapid increases of values in check. Inventory levels are generally low, and there may be a flurry of last minute first time buyers out there who come to realize the $8,000 credit expires December 1.

The inventory levels of homes for sale crept up a bit in our latest snap shot. Remember that inventory levels are constantly changing – the snap shot this morning will be different from a snap shot this afternoon as new homes come on the market and other homes are sold, but it shows trends. Oxnard still has very low inventory levels which accounts for the over bidding we’ve been seeing in the past few weeks.