The housing market in southern California remains strong but seem to be loosing some of it’s steam and slowing slightly. This is a good thing considering how low the home inventory has remained throughout the year. Hopefully the slight slow down will be a chance for buyers to see more home’s on the market before they go into escrow.
Orange County’s red-hot housing market cooled in July — but only slightly, new housing figures released Tuesday, Aug. 29, show. The median price of an Orange County home — or price at the midpoint of all sales — dipped to $690,000 last month, the Irvine-based real estate data firm reported. That is down from the all-time high of $695,000 reached in May and June, CoreLogic figures show. But last month’s median still was up $50,500, or 7.9 percent, from July 2016.
Sales, meanwhile, also cooled somewhat from this past spring’s home buying frenzy. CoreLogic reported 3,278 houses, condos and townhomes changed hands last month. That’s 21 units shy of the July 2016 tally, a decrease of 0.6 percent year over year. Last month’s sales drop could have been caused by a jump in transactions to an 11-year high in June, said CoreLogic Research Analyst Andrew LePage. “The drop-off in activity suggests that late-spring homebuyers burned through a sizable chunk of an already tight inventory of homes for sale, which then constrained July sales,” he said. Jordan Levine, senior economist for the California Association of Realtors, said the July market is repeating a story that has been playing out in the region for the last four years. “There’s far more demand than supply,” Levine said. “At the same time, unemployment came down and incomes are coming up. That’s a recipe for higher prices.”
