The California Association of Realtors is out with December 2023 numbers, which showed home sales remained flat from November. Existing, single-family home sales totaled 224,000 last month, down 7.1 percent from December 2022.
According to CAR, sales of existing single-family homes in California have been below the 300,000 threshold since September 2022 and will likely stay below that level in the first quarter of 2024.
The December median home price rose 6.4 percent from a revised $770,490 recorded a year ago. While California’s statewide median price dipped 0.3 percent from November to $819,740 in December, it posted its largest year-over-year gain since May 2022.
“The housing market had a tough year in 2023 as a shortage of homes for sale and high costs of borrowing continued to have a negative impact on housing inventory and demand,” said 2024 CAR President Melanie Barker. “With mortgage rates expected to come down in the next 12 months, home sales will bounce back as buyers and sellers return to a more favorable housing market. Home prices should see a moderate increase in 2024 as well.”
At the regional level, sales in all major regions dipped in December on a year-over-year basis. The Central Valley region recorded the biggest drop of 14.8 percent from a year ago.The San Francisco Bay Area was the other major region with a double-digit sales loss, down 11.4 percent annually, followed by the Far North, Southern California and the Central Coast.