Southern California: House sales up 65% from September 2007. 50% of those sales were foreclosed homes with low, low prices, but it does show that there are buyers out there, at some level.

A total of 20,497 new and existing houses and condominiums sold last month in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. The rise from a year earlier was the biggest in MDA DataQuick's records, which go back to 1988, and September's sales count was the highest since December 2006, the San Diego-based company said today in a statement.

Sales increased the most in areas where rising foreclosures drove down prices, MDA DataQuick said. Half of all the homes sold in Southern California last month had been foreclosed upon in the previous 12 months, up from 13 percent a year earlier.

``The prices are low enough that people who would normally not be able to purchase are buying,'' said Stephanie Martin, owner of Champion Realtors, a San Bernardino-based residential brokerage.

I certainly don't want to see half of Greenwich's homes in foreclosure, but a lower price on many of them wouldn't hurt, if you have to or want to sell now. Want to wait? Then that's what you should do.