Area feels housing squeeze

BURBANK — Home prices in Burbank declined sharply in December, and more than 300 homes in the city are in various states of foreclosure, but officials maintain the city’s financial standing is still strong.

The median home price in Burbank in December was $540,000 — down from more than $613,000 a year ago. That nearly 12% drop is slightly more than the 11.5% drop in Los Angeles County and well below the 2.1% gain Glendale posted in the same period, according to the latest analysis from DataQuick Information Systems.

Of the four ZIP Codes in Burbank, three posted losses of nearly 15%, including 91501, which encompass half of the Hillside area, which is home to many high-priced homes that overlook the city.

The other half of the Hillside area, in the 91504 ZIP Code, reported a loss of just 3.4%, with a median home price of $688,000.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Judy Graff, a broker for Burbank, Toluca Lake, Studio City and the East San Fernando Valley. “There are a lot more [condominiums] in 91501. Those condos may be beautiful, but were priced to a point where people shouldn’t have gotten into them.”

The drop in Burbank home prices is less than the state decrease but follows the county trend, the DataQuick numbers show.

The median price in California in December was $402,000, down 14.8% from December 2006.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles County home that cost $529,000 in December 2006 now costs about $470,000, an 11.5% decrease.

Driving the statewide decrease are communities outside major cities, which have been the hardest hit, said Bob Torrez, director of the city’s Financial Services Department.

“[Burbank] has been following the trend,” he said. “But . . . communities like Stockton and Riverside have been hardest hit. A lot of people moved out there for affordable housing and paid 1% rate of interest only to have the real interest rate of about 8% or 9% kick in later. Couple that with the high unemployment rate and it’s bad news for them. But we’re not in a risk stage, though we are watching.”

The number of foreclosures in Burbank has hit 300, though officials at the Financial Services Department say that number is not bad compared with other cities in California.