Home Buying in SoCal Increases, Despite Near Record Prices

Despite higher prices, a growing number of home buyers across Southern California are signing deals.

Home sales across the six-county region rose 10 percent in October to 14,662 deals, compared to the prior month, with prices at a near-record high, the Orange County Register reported.

A dip in interest rates the previous month, when most October sales contracts were signed, may have lured more buyers into the market. The October sales tally, however, was among the lowest in 40 years.

The median price of a Southland home rose 5 percent to $775,000 in October from a year earlier, according to CoreLogic. The typical price was tied for the second-highest on record, coming within $5,000 of the record high of $780,000 in July.

Prices have risen from one month to the next in 16 of the past 23 months, a sign that buyers still outnumber listings despite an increase in homes for sale, according to the Register.

October prices were up in all six counties, with San Bernardino’s median hitting a record high of $525,000, according to CoreLogic.

While home sales grew, they were the fourth-lowest tally for any October since 1988, and well below the October average of just over 22,000 transactions.

Sales from January through October reached nearly 146,000 in the six-county region, compared with a January-to-October average of 223,000 sales. But there were 2,000 more deals in October than in September, a 17 percent increase, while typical sales are either down or unchanged during the period.

“Home-buying momentum is building after nearly two years of suppressed home sales,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said last week in a statement. “Even with mortgage rates modestly rising, … continuous job additions and more housing inventory are bringing more consumers to the market.”

In Los Angeles County, sales were up 15.3 percent to 4,899 transactions in October, while the median price rose 5 percent to $875,000, according to the Register.

In Orange County, sales were up 4.7 percent to 1,994 transactions, while the typical price rose 6 percent to $1.15 million.

In Riverside County, sales were up 11 percent to 2,808 transactions, while median price rose 5.4 percent to $585,000. In San Bernardino County, sales fell 1.6 percent to 1,945 transactions, while the median rose 6.1 percent to $525,000, a record.

— Dana Bartholomew