California Home Sales Edged Lower In June

California’s closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 270,200 in June, according to data from the California Association of Realtors (CAR). This represented a 0.8% drop from the revised 272,410 homes sold in May and a 2.7% decline from the revised 277,690 homes sold in June 2023.

The sales pace has remained below the 300,000-threshold for 21 consecutive months and year-to-date home sales fell behind last year’s level by -0.5% through the first half of the year. New active listings at the state level increased from a year ago for the sixth consecutive month, although the pace of growth declined in the last two months to a single-digit number in June, which CAR attributed to seasonality factors.

Also in decline was the statewide median price – after setting record highs during the past two previous months. June’s median price stumbled by 0.8% from $908,040 in May to $900,720 in June. Still, this price marked the third straight month when the $900,000-benchmark was exceeded.

June’s median home price was also 7.5% than the $837,850 recorded in June 2023, marking the 12th straight month of annual price increases – albeit the smallest since January.

The million-dollar-and-higher market segment rose year-over-year in June by 2% while the sub-$500,000 segment declined by 21%. Sales of homes priced above $1 million now make up 36.3 percent of all sales, nearly the biggest share in at least the last five years.

“Home sales pulled back in June as interest rates remained volatile at the end of the second quarter. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage began to decline since early July though and recently reached the lowest level in five months as the inflation cooling trend continued,” said CAR Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Jordan Levine. “While it will take a couple of more reports for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting rates, housing affordability for qualified buyers should begin to see some improvement in the coming months.”