Home sales across Southern California fall 16% in August

It’s still a seller’s market across Southern California, with fewer people who can afford to buy homes and even fewer homes for sale.

With 15,659 home deals, August sales were down 16.3 percent from the previous year, the 21st straight month of year-over-year declines, the Orange County Register reported, citing figures from CoreLogic.

The median price of a Southern California home dipped to $735,000 in August, down from $740,000 the month before. The median rose 2 percent from a year earlier, with the month-to-month dip attributed to prices generally leveling off from July toward fall’s back-to-school season.

The Southland had less than 113,000 home sales since January, with 2023 on track to be the slowest year on record back to 1988.

“Home sales in SoCal continued to find a new nadir in August,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Selma Hepp told the Register. “Mortgage rates resumed their ascent and continued to keep existing homeowners locked in and inventory of for-sale homes bleak.”

Last year’s rocketing mortgage rates rose even further over the past few months.

In August, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 7.07 percent, up from an average 6.4 percent last spring. The house payment for a median-priced Southern California home reached $3,939, an all-time high.

High home prices, higher mortgage rates and continued competition for a limited number of properties for sale hampered house hunters. 

Bidding wars were still common, although much less than in 2021 when mortgage rates were low. Nearly half of all homes sold above their asking price compared to two-thirds a couple of years ago.

“There’s still enough buyers in the market to keep prices propped up,” Russell Morgan, founder  of HomeWay, a brokerage based in Orange, told the Register. “(But) the middle class is definitely getting squeezed.

“It’s definitely more difficult to own a home.”

— Dana Bartholomew

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