Home sales take record drop
Also, median price of Southern California residence dips as this year's mortage rate climb continues to cool market
Southern California home prices fell for a fifth straight month in October while sales fell to one of the lowest levels on record as the housing market continued retrenching in reaction to this year's mercurial jump in mortgage rates.
The median price of a Southern California home fell to $705,500, the lowest in nine months, CoreLogic reported Monday. The median is the price at which half of sales are higher and half are lower.
The total number of homes sold fell 39% to 14,529 transactions, CoreLogic figures show.
That's the second-lowest total for the month of October since 1988, and the lowest for any month since the pandemic crashed home sales in April and May of 2020. Over the past 35 years, just 28 months had fewer sales.
October's housing numbers fit a trend that started in June, following one of the steepest rises in mortgage interest rates over the past half-century.
Average rates for the popular 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to more than 7% at the start of November from over 3% at the end of 2021. On Thursday, the Freddie Mac rate retreated to 6.61%, still double start-of-theyear rates.
As a result, buyers needing to borrow money lost more than a third of their purchasing power.
While the median home price rose just 4.4% since October 2021, the typical mortgage payment for last month's median-priced home jumped 62%, or $1,418 a month. A buyer who can afford last year's median-priced, $675,500 home now can only afford a home costing $436,000 — which is less than the median price for an Inland Empire condo.
Home prices decreased from September levels in five of the six counties included in CoreLogic's latest report. In Los Angeles County, the median price was up, but the increase was a mere 0.2%.
Despite last month's price drop, medians throughout the region remained above year-ago levels. The regionwide median was up 4.4% from $675,500 in October 2021.
Sales were down in all six counties, falling by 39%-40% in all but Orange and Ventura counties.
Here's a county-by-county breakdown of median prices and sales, with percentage changes from last October:
• Los Angeles County's median rose 2.1% to $801,500; sales fell 39.6% to 4,631 transactions.
• Orange County's median rose 3.3% to $950,000; sales fell 34.6% to 2,118 transactions.
• Riverside County's median rose 3.8% to $545,000; sales fell 40.1% to 2,670 transactions.
• San Bernardino County's median rose 8.9% to $490,000; sales fell 39.3% to 2,099 transactions.
• San Diego County's median rose 5.4% to $775,000; sales fell 40.2% to 2,354 transactions.
• Ventura County's median rose 4.9% to $755,000; sales fell 34.8% to 657 transactions.