Home Resale Market Posts Slight Gain : Real estate: The 1.1% increase in September is offset by a drop in the county’s median price for a detached, single-family home to $232,470.

Orange County’s weak market for previously owned homes posted a slight gain in September, but the low interest rates that helped make the sales hike possible already are slipping away.

For home sellers, the month’s good news--a 1.1% increase in sales from September 1991--was offset by softening property prices as the median resale price for a detached, single-family home dropped to $232,470, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.

That was down 3.1% from $239,870 a year earlier and is the fourth lowest monthly median price since the recession began in July, 1990.

And for Orange County home buyers the good news of weaker prices has been offset recently by a steady increase in mortgage loan interest rates.

Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.92% in September, the lowest since a 7.73% rate in June, 1973, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. But rates have edged up since September, reaching 8.23% last week--the highest since the 8.29% average during the week ended July 2.

And even September’s low interest rates weren’t enough to offset consumer gloom statewide--the sales increases were enjoyed only in pricier markets such as Orange County, San Diego, Monterey and Santa Clara, where low rates and soft prices stirred up some buyer interest.

Statewide, however, the number of resale transactions that closed escrow in September were down 3.6% from the resales recorded in September, 1991. Most of those sales contracts initially were signed in July and August, but interest rates in those months averaged about 8%.

The California Assn. of Realtors does not list actual monthly sales for the state or individual counties, using instead an annualized statewide rate representing what would be the total number of homes sold during 1992 if sales occurred at a given month’s pace throughout the year. For September the annualized rate was 374,200, contrasted with 388,220 for September, 1991. Unlike the raw regional monthly figures, the statewide rate is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that influence home sales.

Resale prices statewide dropped to a median of $196,500, down 0.7% from $197,800 a year earlier, reflecting both a significant drop in the number of listings carried by realtors during the month and a continuing trend by sellers to price their properties conservatively in hopes of stimulating buyer interest.

“Some potential home buyers continue to hesitate to enter the housing market despite ultra-low mortgage interest rates and an abundant inventory,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president of research and economics for the realtors’ trade group.

The condominium market--which typically does well when single family home prices are very high--slammed into a brick wall in September, with a median price of $140,770, down 4% from September, 1991 and with sales off 17.3% from the year-earlier pace.

The realtors’ group does not report condominium sales on a regional basis, but realtors in Orange County say that condominium sales here remain slow in the face of relatively low prices for single family homes.

Median price and sales data for detached homes are based on reports from 83 Boards of Realtors around the state, including 7 of 11 in Orange County.

Sagging Home Prices

The median home resale price in Orange County has been dropping steadily since May; in September, the median price was the lowest in seven months.