Despite the news that California’s sales pace was down 5.4 percent last month, December’s figures gave the Golden State an annual sales of 7.9 percent compared to 2020. And while the state’s overall median home price rose to $796,570, a number of SoCal counties remain well-above the average.
According to the California Association of Realtors, Los Angeles saw the largest month-over-month price increase in December of all the SoCal regions, with a 7.4 percent bump. Last month, the average home price reached $826,500 last month—a 16.7 percent annual increase compared to $708,430 in December 2020.
Orange County once again lead with the highest-priced average home sale at $1,182,500. While December’s stat represented just a 2.8 percent month-over-month increase, O.C. saw a 24.5 percent annual increase when the median sales price came in at $950,000 in December 2020.
San Diego, Riverside and Ventura Counties all saw nominal declines in prices last month, dropping 1.3 percent, .2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Of the three, Ventura County had the highest-priced average sale in December at $850,000.
A bit further north, Santa Barbara County saw it’s average sale price fall 6.5 percent, falling below the million-dollar mark to $937,500. Annually, prices were down in Santa Barbara 3.4 percent.