Southern California home sales slowed for a second straight month in June, the California Association of Realtors said Wednesday, as 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained above 7% throughout May, when most of those sales entered escrow.
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The June sales pace was down 0.8% from a revised 272,410 in May and down 2.7% from a revised 277,690 for the same period in 2018. The sales pace has remained below the 300,000 threshold for 21 consecutive months, and cumulative home sales for the first half of the year are 0.5% below last year's level, according to CAR.
The number of existing single-family home escrow sales in California reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 270,200 in June, according to information collected by CAR from more than 90 local Realtor associations and several real estate information services across the state.
“With interest rates falling to their lowest since February and home supply easing further over the past few months, the housing market is poised to pick up again in the second half of the year,” CAR president Melanie Barker said in a statement. “If interest rates decline more sustainably in the coming weeks and buyers decide to take advantage of lower borrowing costs, market momentum could pick up in the early third quarter.”
According to CAR, median prices statewide fell in June after hitting record highs over the previous two months. The median price fell 0.8 percent to $900,720 in June from $908,040 in May, remaining above the $900,000 threshold for the third consecutive month.
The median home price in California was $900,720, 7.5% higher than the $837,850 in June 2023. This was the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year increases and the smallest since January, but still the No. 1 annual price increase. Home prices will likely continue to post positive year-over-year growth in the second half of the year, according to CAR, but the pace of growth may slow if the rest of the year follows traditional seasonal patterns.
The median price in the Los Angeles metropolitan area was down slightly from the previous month to $835,000 in June, but was up 7.7% from the same time last year. The median price in Los Angeles County rose 9.6% from $811,610 in May to $889,180 last month.
Orange County's median home price rose 1.9% from May to $1.45 million in June, and was up 15.1% from the same month a year ago.
In Southern California, the lowest median price was in Imperial County at $385,000, down 4.9 percent from May.
The average number of days it took to sell a single-family home in California was 18 days in June, up three days from June of last year.
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