Econowatch

WADE DANIELS Staff Reporter Jitters over news of global economic woes and a heat wave contributed to an August slowdown in San Fernando Valley home sales, according to brokers. August saw a total of 2,337 housing units sold, 17.6 percent fewer than the 2,836 sales in the previous month, according to First American Real Estate Solutions, an Anaheim-based research firm. “The market really has slowed down; there are noticeably fewer people calling and coming to open houses,” said Sylvia Prescott, a sales associate at the Coldwell Banker/Jon Douglas Co. office in Woodland Hills. “The market was foamy and frothy for so long, then the heat, and then economic problems made people back off.” In August, temperatures soared throughout the Los Angeles area, especially in the Valley. Temperatures topped 90 degrees on 18 days during the month, and several record-breaking days of heat were recorded, according to the National Weather Service. Despite the heat, August home sales were 15.9 percent higher than for the like month a year earlier, when 2,015 units were sold. The statistics measure the number of residential sale transactions, including detached houses, condominiums and apartment buildings. The drop in home sales resulted in a 17.3 percent drop in home loans issued in August, compared with July. The total loaned in August was $413.5 million, vs. $499.8 million in July. Prescott said she noticed that Valley housing prices, after rising steadily throughout 1998, slowed and even began to dip by late summer. In fact, the average home sale price of $242,510 in August was 0.8 percent below July’s average, though it was 9.2 percent above the year-earlier price.