The San Fernando Valley housing market is so healthy that about the only statistic heading downward is the number of mortgage foreclosures for January, which fell 78.5 percent from the like period last year. The drop in foreclosures, coupled with rising home prices, point to a Valley economy “that is coming back with a vengeance,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County. “If there are some spectacular economic gains being made in the Valley it shouldn’t be surprising,” Kyser said. “With the Valley’s growing numbers of jobs in entertainment and high tech, the jobs that the area lost in aerospace and manufacturing are being replaced.” Along with a strong employment market comes a continuing upturn in home sales. There were 1,499 sales in January of this year, which represents a 17.3 percent rise over the 1,278 home sales for the like period last year, according to Experian, a real estate data service. Mortgage lending for the month was $255 million, an increase of 17.2 percent over January of last year, according to Experian. The number of home sales was actually down by 26.7 percent from the previous month, but Kyser said those numbers typically drop early in the year. “People are recovering from the holidays and getting their finances in order in January,” he said. “The weather is at its worst in that month, and that is also a factor.” In addition to the growing demand for Valley homes, the market for hotel rooms has tightened over the past year. In January, the overall occupancy rate was 71.06 percent, up from 68.32 percent for the like period a year ago, according to PKF Consulting. Coupled with that, January’s average nightly room rate of $98.11 represented a 12.7 percent hike from the cost of a room a year earlier.