Home Sales Trend Downward Around California

Sales for single-family homes in California declined in June by nearly 20 percent compared to the bonanza market of last year’s June, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors.

June sales fell about 4 percent when compared to May, the report found. There were about 277,500 closed escrow sales in June. There were about 289,500 homes sold in May. June 2023 marked the ninth consecutive month where under 300,000 homes sold in the state.

CAR’s statewide survey of sales showed some massive declines, about 31 percent comparing June sales to May sales in Siskiyou County, the home of Mount Shasta, and Yuba County near Sacramento. However, they were balanced out by relatively healthy sales in big population centers such as Los Angeles, where there was an almost 1 percent dip comparing June to May sales. In San Francisco County, there was a 7.5 percent increase in the month-to-month comparison.

Both Los Angeles and San Francisco counties reported big declines compared to last year.

Los Angeles experienced about a 19 percent decline in June 2023 compared with the go-go market of the previous year. San Francisco saw an almost 17 percent decline.

Jordan Levine, CAR’s chief economist, forecast that wildly uneven comparisons with the bonanza sales during 2022 would probably fizzle out by October. Levine also forecast an improving picture in the market for single-family houses.

“Buyer demand appears to have stabilized after rates doubled last year, though rates could still move higher in the coming months,” Levine said. “As inflation finally subsides later this year, the market could see some improvement as rates and supply conditions start turning around.”

The median home price in California, $838,000 in June, dipped 2.4 percent on a year-over-year basis for the eighth consecutive month from $858,800 in June 2022. In San Francisco, the median home price in June was about $1.6 million, a 4 percent decline from a median of $1.7 million in May. In Los Angeles County, there was a median price of about $832,000, which was up 11 percent from May’s median of $745,000.