SoCal home-buying saw most active July in 4 years amid falling mortgage rates

Lower mortgage rates is helping spur stronger home sales in Southern California, as median sale prices keep climbing amid a nationwide housing market slowdown.

According to a new report by CoreLogic, 22,071 new and existing houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in July.

That’s up 6.1 percent from June, and up 3.7 percent year over year. The total number of homes sold last month was the highest for the month of July since 2015.

“After 11 months of year-over-year declines, Southern California posted a modest annual increase in home sales in July,” said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic analyst. “The gain is no surprise given the significant drop in mortgage rates in recent months, combined with a healthy job market, income growth and a rise in inventory.”

But the numbers were not all good.

July sales were still 10.9 percent below the historic average for the month.

In L.A. County, 6,965 homes were sold in July, one fewer than July 2018. The median home sale price for the county was $635,000, 5 percent higher than the same time last year, and 2.75 percent higher than it was in June.

The median price paid for all Southern California homes sold in July 2019 was $540,000, down 0.3 percent month over month from a record high of $541,750 in June 2019 and up 1.9 percent over the $530,000 mark in July 2018.

In July, the number of homes sold for $500,000 or more in Southern California rose 7.1 percent compared with July 2018, and sales of $1 million-plus homes increased by 2.4 percent. Homes that sold for $500,000 or above accounted for more than half of all sales last month.