Like the classic 1970s pop song “Torn Between Two Lovers,” the housing market is showing signs of indecision.

Home prices in Los Angeles County edged down in November, ending a six-month trend that had taken them in the opposite direction. At the same time, sales continued a slow slide that started after summer.

The median price of a home was $339,000, lower than October by $1,000, according to data supplied to the Business Journal by HomeData of Hicksville. N.Y. Sales volume, meanwhile, dipped slightly – about 1.6 percent – for the third month in a row, though it was notably higher than November 2008.

The numbers were being cited as evidence that the real estate market, though more stable, has yet to reach firm ground.

“We are bouncing along the bottom” is how Betty Graham, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Los Angeles, put it.

The recent fluctuations in price also are believed to reflect several cross currents as the market slowly settles from the unrealistic prices of the boom. (Home prices were down 6 percent from a year earlier.)

“What we’re seeing in pricing is strong indications of stability, but the stability is reached by a balance of factors that are moving the market in opposite directions,” said Paul Habibi, a professor of real estate at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Aside from the continuing drop in prices due to the previous overvaluation of property, there are falling incomes due to the recession, a further downward pressure. Adding to that is the still-tight credit markets and higher lending standards.

Pushing in the opposite direction are the tools the federal government has used to intervene in the crisis, including an $8,000 first-time homebuyer’s tax credit recently extended through April 30. Also critical are low mortgage rates supported by government policies, including financing from the Federal Housing Administration. Then there is the logjam in the foreclosure process created by the increasing reluctance of banks to put more homes back on the weak market amid the federal push to allow upside-down homeowners to modify their loans.

“For now,” Habibi said regarding the various opposing factors, “they are canceling each other out to cause stability.”

Condo strength

One corner of the market that clearly has shown continuing health, though, is condos, which are more affordable to first-time buyers. The median price of a condo is now $305,000, about 10 percent lower than a year earlier.

And while sales and prices for Los Angeles County condos were both slightly down since September, sales were still 18 percent higher than last year.

“In our area, first-time buyers would probably have to be in the condo range and that’s probably the reason they’re up,” Graham said.

Meanwhile, she believes the first-time buyer’s credit may be a key reason some home markets are doing better.

“It has a psychological impact. There’s a certain amount of energy – heat, if you will – in the market because of that. Whenever there is activity, it generates other activity,” she said.

Of particular note are pricing trends in the San Gabriel Valley – especially Pasadena – where median home prices were up as much as 100 percent in some ZIP codes from last year.

“It’s because the area has had some consistency,” Graham said. “At a time when the market was overvalued everywhere else, that area wasn’t. It was always stable, so the highs and lows have been muted at both ends; I look at the San Gabriel Valley as a true guideline of what’s going on.”

Other areas posting significant year-over-year price gains include Hollywood (up to 165 percent higher), Koreatown (143 percent), Signal Hill (100 percent), Malibu (45 percent), Harbor City (31 percent), Westwood (21 percent) and Playa del Rey (21 percent).

As always, Graham said, the real estate market “is very localized. Every street has its own nuances. You really have to look at the micromarket; what’s going on in your neighborhood and what’s happening on the street in which you’re interested.”

However, both Graham and Habibi agreed that the ultimate recovery will depend largely on bigger economic factors, most notably a recovery from the recession and stronger job growth.