California’s existing-home sales market remained strong in February despite an uptick in mortgage rates per new numbers out from the California Association of Realtors. February’s sales pace jumped 12.8 percent higher from the revised January numbers and rose 1.3 percent from a year ago. The monthly sales increase was the second straight month of double-digit gains for California.
The statewide median price was up 9.7 percent from $735,300 in February 2023 to $806,490 in February 2024. California’s median home price was 2.2 percent higher than January’s $789,480. The near-double-digit, year-over-year gain was the eighth straight month of annual price increases for the Golden State.
“Housing supply conditions in California continued to improve in February with new active listings rising more than 10 percent for the second straight month,” said CAR President Melanie Barke. “This is great news for buyers who have been competing for a dearth of homes for sale, and the momentum will hopefully build further as we enter the spring home buying season.”
February was the second consecutive month of year-over-year gains, but the improvement was mild. The sales pace remained below the 300,000 threshold for the 17th consecutive month. CAR anticipates that while it is likely that sales will stay below this level in the first quarter of 2024, statewide home sales on a year-to-date basis remained positive with an increase of 3.4 percent.
At the regional level, unadjusted raw sales increased in all major regions in February on a year-over-year basis.