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Residential
Los Angeles

For LA home brokers, January brings active start to year

Listings and sales increase as pent-up demand carries over from 2023

For LA Home Brokers, January Brings Active Start to Year
Sally Forster Jones (Getty, Sally Forster Jones)

The year started on a bullish note for L.A. residential sellers, with a solid uptick in signed contracts and an increase in listings in January.

During the first month of the year there were 1,650 signed contracts, a 5.4 percent increase from the 1,565 new signed contracts in January 2023, according to information collected in the Elliman Report. It was a 2.4 percent increase in new signed contracts compared to the previous month of December 2023.

There was a 5.8 percent increase in new listings in a year-over-year comparison. In January there were 1,932 new listings compared to 1,826 new listings for the same month in 2023. However, it was a 96 percent increase in a month-to-month comparison. In December there were 988 new listings, according to The Elliman Report.

Top agent Sally Forster Jones of Compass said that the second week of January marked a change for her 30-person group. 

“Activity had become more brisk. I started getting more phone calls then,” Jones said.

One reason for the change in pace was the calendar. Home buyers and sellers typically show more interest in getting involved in the market at the start of the year, Jones said. She also noted there has been a lot of pent-up demand after 2023 which was seen as a slow year for the real estate market.

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A bullish stock market has made buyers more confident with buying homes. Many buyers want to get ahead of housing trends.

“There’s more of an urgency,” Jones said. “Buyers are stepping up now because prices will increase in 2024.”

Economists such as Sam Khater at Freddie Mac forecast that home prices would increase at a steady rate across the nation.

The Los Angeles condo market showed new life in January, according to The Elliman Report. There were 606 new signed contracts for L.A. area condos during the month, a 16.8 percent year-over-year increase. There also was an about 8 percent increase in a month -to-month comparison from new signed contracts in December, when there were 562 new signed condo contracts.

There was a 97 percent month-to-month surge in condo listings. In January, there were 790 new condo listings compared to  December when there were 400. 

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Companies and People
CompassDouglas Elliman
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Condoshousing-marketlos-angelesresidential-real-estate