The median price of a home in San Bernardino County has climbed close to $500,000, with sales slowing as mortgage rates rise.
A median house in the area–which counts as half of the Inland Empire, alongside neighboring RIverside County–cost $485,000 in February, up 2.1 percent from the previous month and 17.7 percent from the same month last year, the San Bernardino Sun reported.
It also came close to a record home price of $485,500 in December.
Sales data from DQNews show that 2,359 homes, both old and new, sold in February across San Bernardino County — down 5 percent from January and down 4 percent from February 2021.
The February dip in sales reflects a broader trend across Southern California, where 16,905 homes sold in six counties, up 2 percent for the month but down 8 percent for the year, DQNews reports. The region’s median price cracked the $700,000 barrier in just 15 months, hitting $706,000 — up 3 percent for the month, and up 15 percent over 12 months.
Since 1988, a typical February sees a one-month sales drop 65 percent of the time, with an average 1.2 percent decrease from January.
But San Bernardino County sales remained fairly brisk, ranking as the 11th busiest February since 1988. In the prior 12 months, the county had 37,408 home sales, 15 percent above the previous year and 26 percent above the 10-year average.
Of those, 1,877 were existing homes, which sold for a median price of $460,000; 142 were existing condominiums, with a median price of $485,000; and 340 were newly built, with a typical price of $575,000, a 13-percent increase over the past year.
At the same time, Los Angeles and Orange County listings were down 34 percent in a year, the ninth-biggest drop among the 50 largest metropolitan regions in the U.S. The Inland Empire supply rose 6 percent, the largest gain in the nation, according to Realtor.com.
Rates on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.44 percent in the three months ending in February compared to 2.74 percent from a year earlier. That translates to 8 percent less buying power for house hunters.
The Inland Empire will outrank Los Angeles County in the multifamily market this year, according to a recent report from Marcus & Millichap.
[San Bernardino Sun] – Dana Bartholomew
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