Southern California home sales slow in August

Home sales slowed in August in Southern California and across the state, the California Association of Realtors announced Tuesday.

The Southern California region saw a 2.3% decline in sales, compared to the same month last year, and a 5.3% drop from July. Los Angeles County's pace fell 3.2% between July and August, but was unchanged from a year ago, and Orange County was down 6.5% from the previous month and 7.3% from a year ago.

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Statewide, August's sales pace fell 6.3% from the 279,810 homes sold in July of this year to 262,050, but were up 2.8% from a year ago at this time.

"Home price growth in California continued to moderate in August as the market neared the end of the traditional home buying season," CAR President Melanie Barker said in a statement. "With the Federal Reserve signaling it will lower interest rates soon, mortgage rates are expected to ease well below their recent peaks. As such, housing affordability will improve in the fall, and buyers will benefit from lower costs of borrowing in the coming months."

The only other region of the state to experience a decline in year-to- year sales was the Far North, which dropped 5%.

"Despite a slightly better lending environment in recent weeks, closed home sales pulled back in August as buyers evaluated whether to wait for the Federal Reserve to cut rates before entering the market," CAR Senior Vice President and chief economist Jordan Levine said. "Pending sales, along with mortgage application trends, however, suggest that housing demand has been slowly improving in the past few weeks. If mortgage rates remain at their current low or dip further in the coming weeks, home sales should rise steadily as we move toward the end of the year."

The median price of an existing, single-family home declined somewhat in the Los Angeles metro area, from $849,000 in July 2024 to $827,000 in August, up from $792,500 in August of last year. It increased in Los Angeles County overall, however, from $909,010 in July to $919,890 in August, up from $882,010 last August.

Orange County's average price increased from $1.39 million in July to $1.4 million, up from $1.31 million last August.

San Mateo County had the highest median price in August at $1.9 million.

Statewide, the median price of an existing, single-family home was $888,740 in August, up slightly from $886,560 in July and from $859,670 in August 2023.

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