Home Sales Drop to 11-Year Low, Number Plunges 17% from Previous Year
The housing market in Southern California took another hit last month as sales plunged 17% from a year earlier, according to a CoreLogic report released Wednesday. New data shows a total of 12,665 new and existing houses and condos were sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in January 2019.
The number is down 19.8% month-over-month from 15,794 sales in December 2018, and down 17.1% year-over-year from 15,280 sales in January 2018. Total SoCal home sales in January were the lowest for that month since January 2008, when 9,983 homes were sold. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for the last six consecutive months, and in eight of the last 10 months.
CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage notes “Buyer enthusiasm during this period was dampened by a variety of forces, including affordability constraints, stock market volatility, concerns home prices might have peaked, and uncertainty triggered by the partial federal government shutdown that began on Dec. 22, 2018. However, this January’s slowdown was likely tempered by a significant drop in mortgage rates that began in December, improving affordability at a time when inventory was up year over year.”
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