The figures were released Tuesday by DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate news service.
The plunging numbers could bring the region one step closer to the bottom of the barrel for housing market prices, said Judy Graff, a broker associate who deals in Burbank, Glendale and other San Fernando Valley neighborhoods.
“I think we’re close to the bottom,” Graff said. “I think we’ve seen the highest percentage we’ve seen on foreclosures; and for middle class homes — in the $400[,000] to $500[,000] range — those are starting to get sold fairly rapidly. I’m seeing things go in a month, and the investor classes are returning to the market.”
The most severe home price drop-off in Burbank occurred in a portion of its hillside community, encompassed by the 91501 ZIP code. There, home prices dropped to $655,000 in June, a decrease of 26.1% from last year.
The hardest-hit region in Glendale is the Adams Square district, where the median sale price for homes in June reached $440,000, a 32.2% drop from last year. Foreclosures shot up 800%, with nine of them recorded in the second quarter this year compared with just one during the same period last year.
But the continued drop in the local market, and the paralleled media coverage, has further entrenched people’s belief that the worst has yet to come, Graff said.
“I don’t want to paint a completely rosy picture, but in our middle-class areas, I don’t think it’s as bad as our people make it out to be,” she said. “If you look at actual numbers, there really aren’t necessarily as many foreclosures as you might think.”
