Southern California home sales in June remained soft for the second consecutive month, as the 30-year fixed rate mortgage remained above 7% throughout most of May, when most of these sales opened escrow, the California Association of Realtors announced Wednesday.
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June's sales pace dipped 0.8% from the revised 272,410 homes sold in May and were down 2.7% from a year ago, when a revised 277,690 homes were sold on an annualized basis. The sales pace remained below the 300,000-threshold for the 21st consecutive month, and year-to-date home sales have fallen behind last year's level by 0.5% through the first half of the year, according to CAR.
Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 270,200 in June, according to information collected by CAR from more than 90 local Realtor associations and multiple listing services statewide.
"With interest rates coming down to the lowest levels since February and the availability of homes loosening up further in the last few months, the housing market is gearing up for another run in the second half of the year," CAR President Melanie Barker said in a statement. "We could see a pickup in market momentum at the start of the third quarter if rates decline in a more sustainable way in the coming weeks and buyers decide to take advantage of lower costs of borrowing."
According to CAR, the statewide median price took a step back in June, after setting record highs during the past two previous months. June's median price slipped 0.8% from $908,040 in May to $900,720 in June, exceeding the $900,000-benchmark for the third month in a row.
California's median home price of $900,720 was 7.5% higher than the $837,850 recorded in June 2023. The year-over-year gain was the 12th straight month of annual price increases, albeit the smallest since January. Home prices will likely continue recording positive year-over-year gains in the second half of the year, though the pace of growth could moderate if the rest of the year follows the traditional seasonal pattern, according to CAR.
The median price in the Los Angeles metro area was slightly lower in June compared to the previous month at $835,000, a 7.7% increase from last year at this time. The median price in Los Angeles County increased by 9.6%, from $811,610 in May to $889,180 last month.
Orange County saw its median home price increase 1.9% from May to $1.45 million in June, 15.1% higher than the same month last year.
In Southern California, the lowest median price was Imperial County's $385,000, a 4.9% decrease from May.
The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home was 18 days in June, three days more than June of last year.
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