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California Housing Continues on Recovery Track

californiaThe California housing market continued on its 2014 trend line in June, picking up from a month prior but remaining subdued compared to last year's more active market.

According to real estate data site DataQuick, an estimated 39,254 new and resale homes and condos sold statewide throughout California last month, reflecting a 4.0 percent increase from 37,734 in May.

Put against last year's pace, June sales fell short 4.3 percent.

California home sales in the month of June have varied from a low of 35,202 in 2008 to a high of 76,669 in 2004, DataQuick reports. The long-run average of June sales since 1988 is 48,929—nearly 20 percent higher than last month's number.

"California sales have not been above average for any particular month in more than eight years," DataQuick said.

The median price paid for a home in California last month was $393,000, an increase of 1.8 percent from May and 11.6 percent year-over-year. It was the highest median for any month since December 2007, when prices dropped to $402,000 from a peak of $484,000 earlier that year.

Median prices in California eventually slid to a trough of $221,000 in April 2009.

In other state housing market news, DataQuick reported the typical monthly mortgage payment that buyers committed themselves to was $1,530, up from $1,508 a month prior.

Adjusted for inflation, June's typical payment was 35.1 percent below that in spring 1989—the peak of the prior real estate cycle—and 47.4 percent below the current cycle's peak in June 2006.

Meanwhile, market stress indicators remain in decline, DataQuick reported: "Foreclosure activity remains well below year-ago and peak levels reached in the last five years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, while down payment sizes are stable."

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