SoCal Welcomes Gains In Home Sales, Prices

Homebuying trends are looking up in Southern California (SoCal) at the start of the spring season.

Home sales volume increased by 12.3% in February year over year, with all six SoCal counties posting annual gains, according to new data released by CoreLogic.

Orange County topped the charts with a 21.2% hike in home sales, followed by San Bernardino (13.6%), Ventura (11%), Los Angeles (10.7%), Riverside (10.3%) and San Diego (9.9%).

“Southern California housing markets are finally showing signs of thawing,” said Dr. Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic. “After some 30 months of year-over-year declines in home sales, an increase in new listings and a temporary drop in mortgage rates boosted home sales at the beginning of the year. With a continued improvement in inventory, Southern California will finally see a budding spring homebuying season.”

As homebuyers wake up from a long winter’s nap and start making offers, home prices have followed suit.

The median sales price for all tracked properties in Southern California was $740,000 in February, a YOY increase of 8% for the region. Home price gains by county were as follows: Orange (16.8%), Ventura (11.8%), Los Angeles (10.5%), San Diego (10%), Riverside (5.1%) and San Bernardino (4.3%).

“Strong homebuyer demand continues to push home prices higher in Southern California, which were up by 8% year over year in February,” Hepp pointed out. “These numbers are similar to those found in the latest U.S CoreLogic S&P Case-Shiller Index, which showed that San Diego and Los Angeles were the top two metro areas for annual appreciation in January of the 20 tracked in the report.”

Orange County again posted the highest median sales price in Southern California, at $1.1 million, followed by Los Angeles ($845,000), San Diego ($825,000), Ventura ($823,500), Riverside ($567,500) and San Bernardino ($490,000).