Equity home sales — standard sales in which a seller has equity in the property being sold — in June reached their highest level in California since the housing crisis began, the California Association of Realtors reported today.
The share of equity sales rose in June to 90.3 percent, up from 89.2 percent in May, according to a CAR statement.
Equity sales have been rising steadily again since the beginning of this year, it said.
June marks a full year that equity sales have been more than 80 percent of total sales and the first time they have risen above 90 percent, the statement said. Equity sales made up 79.7 percent of sales in June 2013.
The combined share of all distressed property sales — such as the sale of homes under foreclosure orders — continued to decline in June, dropping from 10.8 percent in May to 9.7 percent, CAR reported.
Distressed sales continued to be down by more than 50 percent from a year ago, when the share was 20.3 percent.
At the same time, California pending home sales fell in June, with the Pending Home Sales Index dropping 2.8 percent from 110.1 in May to 107 in June, based on signed contracts, according to CAR. Pending sales were down 5.9 percent from the revised 113.8 index recorded in June 2013.
Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.
