First-Time Buyers Push Home Sales Up 26%

First-time buyers presented with a unique opportunity pushed sales during April of existing home throughout the San Fernando Valley up 26.3 percent from a year ago and forced down an already steadily shrinking inventory, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors reported.

The 691 single-family homes sold last month marked the tenth consecutive month of sales increases.

"We're seeing enormous activity from buyers," said Ana Maria Colon, president of the Association. "There simply are not enough homes listed for sale and every open house I visited recently had prospective buyers crawling all over them.

"Most of these people represent a new generation of first-time buyers," Colon said. "It's a good sign because all of these families would have been unable to buy a home except with the help of FHA loans, low down payment, favorable interest rates, the $8,000 tax credit from the housing stimulus package and today's low prices."

Indeed, Colon and Jim Link, the Association's chief executive officer, said that virtually every transaction at or below the median price of $355,000 attracts offers from multiple bidders with some properties eliciting 30 offers or more, many of which are over list price.

"While what we're seeing is encouraging, we're not out of the woods yet," Link said. There will be more bank-owned properties coming as the state's moratorium on foreclosures draws to an end this summer and banks release what some observers believe may represent another wave of distressed properties.

Yet today's inventory of homes listed for sale is so relatively small - some 3,874 for all of the San Fernando Valley, representing a mere 4.3-month supply - that however many homes are released on the market they likely will be snapped up by eager buyers and investors, with the latter group capturing some of the best properties with all-cash offers.

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