Meltdown Was More of a Mixed Bag: REAL ESTATE: Despite flat market, some cities saw home sales skyrocket in 2006.

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By DANIEL MILLER & DAVID NUSBAUM
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Even though 2006 was a flat-to-down year overall for the housing market in Los Angeles County, a review of full-year data released last week shows that many affordable areas enjoyed a banner year.
But many of the expensive areas got rocked.
There was no housing downturn in Inglewood, for example. The four ZIP codes that make up the city had a combined median house price of $585,000 in December, making it a reasonably affordable area for Los Angeles’ pricey market. In 2006, the number of homes sold in those Inglewood ZIP codes increased a whopping 55 percent. The price of homes increased more than 15 percent.
The same is true in Carson, where sales increased 28 percent and prices increased 9.2 percent.
All those numbers were better than the county as a whole. For 2006, the number of homes sold declined 21.8 percent to 82,690 units. The median price from December to December increased 4.8 percent to $550,000.
But at the same time that many affordable areas were enjoying a good, even great, 2006, several high-end areas hit a very rough patch.
Malibu saw its sales volume plunge 45 percent and prices drop 15 percent. Beverly Hills’ three ZIP codes had a composite sales volume drop of 35 percent and a price drop of 38 percent.

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