Rising interest rates are taking their toll on California’s existing-home sales market, with new September numbers just out from the California Association of Realtors.
According to CAR, existing, single-family home sales totaled 305,680 last month, down 2.5 percent from August and down 30.2 percent from September 2021. September’s statewide median home price was $821,680—down 2.1 percent from August and up 1.6 percent from September 2021.
Year-to-date statewide home sales were down 16.5 percent in September. Home sales have dipped for 15 straight months on a year-over-year basis, and September marked the second time in the last three months that sales dropped more than 30 percent from the year-ago level.
“With interest rates rising rapidly since the beginning of the year, buyers and sellers are having difficulties adapting to the market’s new ‘normal,’” said CAR President Otto Catrina. “As the market continues to evolve in the next 12-18 months, realtors will be playing an ever-more important role as trusted advisors to guide their clients through the complicated buying and selling process and help them overcome their obstacles during these challenging times.”
At the regional level, sales continued to fall sharply from last year, with four of the five major regions falling more than 25 percent compared to September 2021. Southern California had the biggest annual drop in sales at 32.6 percent, as every county within the region experienced a sales decline of more than 30 percent last month.
The San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and the Central Coast also dipped more than 25 percent from last year. The Far North continued to post the smallest declines of the five major regions, but it also has been dropping by double-digits for four straight months.
Stay tuned for our regional breakdowns at CaliforniaListings.com and CaliforniaListings.com/NorCal, going live on Wednesday.