In April, the median price was down to just over $4,700, or just under 1 ½%, to slightly over $325200 from March. However, it is over 12% higher than April of 2009. This drop was in both the resale and new housing categories.
The number of sales was up by 2% to just under 3,300, which is the smallest change on a month to month basis for March to April since 2002. Historically, since 2000, April sales were higher than those in March seven out of eleven years.
As an additional indication of possible stabilization, the number of foreclosure sales over the last twelve months dropped slightly to 32.2% from 32.4% and from 47.4% in April of 2009. Apparently, the expected huge number of short sales and foreclosures has not yet happened.
The median has remained fairly flat ever since summer of last year, being around $320,000 to $325,000, with the exception of this past January, when the median was down to $305,000. The high median price was just over $517,000 in November of 2005. The cyclic low was hit in January of 2009 at $280,000.
In short, the median is now just over 37% lower than the peak and just over 16% higher than the low point. Presently, the median is back to that of 2002, when prices began to rise dramatically.
