Sales may have continued their downward trend, but home prices in California continued to rise last month. According to the California Association of Realtors, existing-home sales fell 5.3 percent compared to July 2023. On an annual basis, sales were down 19 percent.
The monthly decline was the third consecutive decrease, and the annual decline was the 26th straight drop.
At $859,800, the state’s median home price reached its highest level in 15 months in August—up 3.3 percent from July and up 3 percent from August 2022.
“Despite persistently high mortgage rates and availability of homes remaining extremely tight, there’s still solid interest from prospective buyers,” said CAR President Jennifer Branchini. “The highly competitive housing market continued to provide support to home prices, with the statewide median price steadily improving since early 2023. As California housing prices continue to stabilize, buyers and sellers on the sidelines will get back into the market once interest rates begin to moderate in the fourth quarter.”
At the regional level, all major regions recorded double-digits sales declines in August on a year-over-year basis, with four of the five major regions dropping more than 15 percent from a year ago. The Central Valley region recorded the biggest sales drop, down 19 percent, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area (down 18.3 percent), the Central Coast (down 17.9 percent) and the Far North (down 15.7 percent). SoCal was the only region that experienced a decline of less than 15 percent, down 13.9 percent.