Median home prices continued to climb during the first quarter of 2004 in both the North Santa Barbara County region and San Luis Obispo County, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

During the same three-month period, home resales fell substantially in both areas from the fourth quarter, but climbed from the first quarter of last year, the association reported.

The median price 7 half the homes in an area sold for more and half sold for less 7 in the North County was ,347,240, up 5.5 percent from the fourth quarter and nearly 20 percent from a year ago. In San Luis Obispo County, the median price for the first quarter was ,410,150, a gain of 3.7 percent from the fourth quarter and 13.2 percent from the first quarter of 2003.

For all of Santa Barbara County, the median was ,466,380, up a whopping 19.8 percent from the fourth quarter and 18 percent from a year ago. The Santa Barbara South Coast region had a median of ,969,370 for the quarter, up 12.8 percent from the prior quarter and a gain of 22.2 percent from a year ago.

Home resales in San Luis Obispo County for the quarter dropped 20.6 percent and were down 13.5 percent for the period in the North County. Area real estate representatives attributed the drop in sales to a lack of listings.

But compared to a year ago, sales were up more than 25 percent on the South Coast, 17.4 percent for Santa Barbara County, just over 17 percent for the North County and 3 percent for San Luis Obispo County.

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California set a record during the first quarter of 2004, rising 20.5 percent to ,407,170, the association reported.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California amounted to 598,370 for the first quarter of 2004 at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, a 4.4-percent increase from 573,030 in the first quarter of 2003.

The association/s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes for the first quarter of 2004 was 1.6 months, compared to a revised 2.6 months for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

May 13, 2004