High-End Home Sales Pick Up in LA for First Time in a Year

Sold homes and listings for the Los Angeles market continued its year-long decline in October, but there was some good news in a marketplace of scarce inventory.

Two categories of the single-family home segment experienced gains for the first time in a year, according to the monthly Elliman Report, released by brokerage Douglas Elliman.

In a year-over-year comparison, signed contracts for single-family homes priced between $2 million and $4.99 million increased 6.8 percent. Compared to the previous month, there was an 8 percent increase, the report found.

Further down the price scale, there was an uptick of 1.5 percent in signed contracts for single-family homes between $1 million and $1.99 million in a year-over-year comparison. However, there was a dip of 2 percent for this category when compared to September.

Signed contracts for higher-end condos in Los Angeles also increased in October. For condos priced higher than $2 million, there was a 31.6 percent increase in a year-over-year comparison.

Jonathan Miller, the author of the report, said there was an uptick in the higher-end market because the rich are different.

“Luxury or the higher-end market for the most part seems to be outperforming the overall market. It’s because of less impact of mortgage rates,” Miller said. “As you move higher in price, there’s a probability of a buyer not dependent on mortgage rates.”

Shelton Wilder of the self-named Shelton Wilder Group at AKG Christie’s International Real Estate said she also noticed an uptick in segments of the L.A. market.

“There has been more activity,” she said. “Buyers have gotten more used to rates. Prices have come down. If buyers can afford the monthly, they are buying houses for much less than they would have a year and half ago. They can refinance when rates drop.”

Wilder also noted that some sellers have become more driven toward the end of the year, so they can wrap up deals for tax reasons.

Despite some gains, the story of decline that the L.A. market has told for the past year continued in October. For the overall market, signed contracts declined 8.4 percent in a year-over-year comparison. The L.A. market reported 1,853 signed contracts in October, compared to 2,022 signed contracts in October 2022. There also was a 7.4 percent decline in a month-to-month comparison. There were 1,991 signed contracts in September.

New listings for single-family homes also declined on a year-to-year basis. There were 2,240 new listings in L.A. in October, compared to 2,426 in October 2022. However, new listings for single-family homes increased 7.4 percent compared to September, when 2,084 new listings came on the market.