LA Single-Family Home Sales Uptick Slightly in May

Signed contracts for single-family homes in Los Angeles County inched up in May compared to the previous month.

There were 2,431 signed contracts for single-family homes in May compared to 2,348 signed contracts in April, about a 4 percent increase, according to research from brokerage Douglas Elliman. New listings also increased in May. There were 2,039 new listings in L.A. County during the month, compared to 1,815 in April.

Real estate agent Paul Salazar credited the May upticks to homebuyers getting used to the state of the market.

“They accepted that interest rates are high. Buyers have been on the sidelines for months, and now they are buying. Another important point is the weather. It was crazy how much it rained during the winter. Los Angeles stops when it rains. People come out again when it stops raining,” said Salazar, founder of the Paul Salazar Group at Hilton & Hyland.

Salazar also noted that the L.A. market remains difficult.

“There are a ton of buyers out there who are sitting on the sidelines. But there is very little inventory. Nobody wants to sell. People are saying they don’t want to go from their 2.5 percent interest rate to a 6.7 percent rate,” Salazar said.

The slowness of the L.A. market appears in year-to-year comparisons in the Elliman report. New signed contracts declined 24 percent from May 2022 to May 2023. There also was a 31 percent drop in new listings for single-family homes in L.A. County from May 2022 to May 2023.