SoCal housing market rebounds in June but still lags far behind 2019

The Southern California housing market rebounded in June from an abysmal spring, but it’s still far behind last year’s numbers.

There were 44 percent more home sales across the region in June than in May, according to data firm DQNews, as cited by the Los Angeles Times.

That lines up with Los Angeles County home sales, which also surged in June. There were 3,868 contracts signed to buy single-family homes last month in the county, a 40 percent climb from May, according to a recent report from Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel.

The overall improvement in SoCal numbers is a sign that homebuyers were eager to close deals and secure low mortgage rates. Those rates continue to drop. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dipped to a record low of 2.98 percent in mid-July.

The median sale price for the six counties of Southern California rose 2.9 percent year-over-year to a record high of $555,500.

The market appears starved for listings — there were 26 percent fewer homes on the market in Los Angeles and Orange counties last month than a year earlier.

Despite the June boost in sales, the month was still a record low for the number of deals closed. Last month saw 15 percent fewer home sales year-over-year, according to the data. That was still far less precipitous than the May year-over-year drop — 45 percent. The April drop in deals was 32 percent from the same time in 2019. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch