Home prices continue to break records in Southern California.
The city’s median home sale price rose 7.2 percent year-over-year in April to an all-time high of $520,000, according to a CoreLogic report released Wednesday. That’s a jump of $1,000 over March, according to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the data.
The median for new and resale houses and condominiums in Los Angeles County rose 7.3 percent to $590,000. For the other five counties in the region, prices jumped between 4.4 percent and 10 percent.
Sales activity, however, was down 1.5 percent compared to last year, likely because of low supply and prices rising beyond what buyers can afford or are ready to spend.
Average rates on a 30-year mortgage also climbed to a seven year high of 4.61 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
The trends in Southern California reflect wider trends statewide and nationally. The state’s median sales price has risen for 73 consecutive months since March 2012, according to CoreLogic. Home sales are strong nationally too, particularly for sales above $750,000, tempered only by a low supply of homes, according to the National Association of Realtors.
There are signs that younger buyers could continue to drive demand. First-time buyers made up 38 percent of single-family home purchases last year, the highest percentage since 2000. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch