Southern California home sales fell to the lowest level in three years for the month of April, according to DataQuick who monitors real estate activity nationwide. Distressed sales, Foreclosures and Short Sales, were down slightly.

April marked the 10th consecutive month in which Southland sales fell year-over-year.

The median price paid for all new and resale Southland houses and condos purchased last month was $280,000, down 0.2 percent from $280,500 in March, and down 1.8 percent from $285,000 in April 2010.

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Fred Arnold, Branch Manager for American Family Funding in Santa Clarita blames uncertainty:

“There’s very little spring excitement like there normally is because of uncertainty. We have uncertainty with oil prices. Which is affecting gas prices, which is affecting the cost of everything for the consumer. There’s uncertainty that new homes will come on the market. Because of that uncertainty, it’s caused a lot of buyers to hold off that spring buying season we normally see.”

Although distressed property sales eased slightly last month, they still accounted for more than half of the resale market.

Foreclosure resales – properties foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – made up 33.9 percent of all Southland resales in April, down from 36.0 percent in March and 36.4 percent a year ago. Foreclosure resales hit a high of 56.7 percent in February 2009 and a low of 32.8 percent last June.

Arnold sees those lower numbers as deceptive.

“I think there are going to be more foreclosures and more short sales opportunities for the buyers out there,” Arnold said.

Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what had been owed on the property – made up an estimated 17.8 percent of Southland resales last month. That was down from an estimated 18.3 percent in March and 18.1 percent a year earlier, but up from 12.2 percent two years ago.

“The positive part of all this is housing costs are going down making it more affordable for people to jump into the market,” said Arnold.

Arnold hosts The Santa Clarita Business Hour on KHTS AM 1220.