Home Prices Take A Dip

The pace of Monterey County home sales picked up last month, but prices in some areas -- including Carmel and Seaside -- went down. The county's median sales price last month was $612,000, down 3.8 percent from February, according to listings from the Monterey County Association of Realtors. A median price of $612,000 means half the homes sold for more that month, half for less.

In Carmel, the median price in March was $1.3 million, down from $1.675 million the month before. Seaside's median price went down 9.5 percent to $580,000. Despite the month-to-month dip, many communities saw price increases. For example, in Pacific Grove, the median price last month was $895,000 -- up 40.9 percent from February, according to the Realtors association. In Monterey, it was $870,000, a 35.9 percent increase. In North Salinas, the price was $570,000, up 2.7 percent. Prices continue to climb by large amounts year over year. In March 2004, the county's median price was $509,000 -- a $103,000, or 20.2 percent, increase in 2005. Prices year over year were up in all but one market area, Big Sur. (There, the median price went down from $2.4 million to $2.3 million, but so few homes are sold in a month that it's not useful to compare.) The pace of sales seems to have been more brisk than in months past. There were 327 sales closed in March, according to the Realtors association -- that's up from 200 in February and 258 from March of last year. Monterey County continues to be ahead of the statewide curve.

The median price of a home in California was $495,000, a 15.7 percent increase from the year before, according to the California Association of Realtors. Approximately 634,700 homes were sold statewide last month, according to the state realtors association. For Monterey County property sales figures dating back to 2003, visit www.mcar.com/stats.html

Victoria Manley can be reached at 646-4478 or vmanley@montereyherald. com.