LOS ANGELES—California’s median home price across the state exceeded $900,000 for the second straight month to set another record high, although mortgage rates that surged to their highest levels since late last year hampered home sales last month, the California Association of Realtors (CAR) said in a press release on June 18.
May’s median home price in California was $908,040, up 4.0 percent from April, and up 8.7 percent from $835,280 in May 2023, according to CAR.
May’s sales pace statewide dipped 1.1 percent from the revised 275,540 homes sold in April and were down 6.0 percent from a year ago, when a revised 289,860 homes were sold on an annualized basis. The sales pace remained below the 300,000-threshold for the 20th consecutive month, and year-to-date home sales were flat, according to CAR.
Stronger sales of higher-priced properties continued to contribute to solid median price growth, especially since million-dollar home sales in California have been rising more rapidly than their more affordable counterparts in the state. Sales in the million-dollar-and-higher market rose 15.5 percent year-over-year in May, while sales in the sub-$500,000 segment declined by 12.2 percent. Sales of homes priced above $1 million now make up 36.6 percent of all sales—the biggest share in at least the last five years, CAR data showed.
“A persistent shortage of homes for sale, particularly in the more affordable market segments, continued to push up California’s median home price to new record highs over the past couple of months,” CAR Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Jordan Levine said, “with mortgage rates coming back down from their recent peaks and market competition heating up, the statewide median price may have more room to grow before the summer ends.”
All major regions experienced an increase in their median price from a year ago. The San Francisco Bay Area posted the biggest price jump on a year-over-year basis, increasing 11.9 percent from last May. Along with Southern California at 10.0 percent, they were the only two regions recording a double-digit gain from a year ago, CAR found.
The median price in the Los Angeles metro area remained steady in May since the previous month at $840,000, a 9.8 percent increase from last May. The median price in Los Angeles County decreased by 1.7 percent, from $825,970 in April to $811,610 last month.
Orange County saw its median home price decrease 1.2 percent from April to $1.42 million, but was 13.2 percent higher than last year at this time.
San Diego County’s media home price also decreased 2.1% from April to $1.025 million, but was 9.6 percent higher than last May.
In Southern California, the lowest median price was Imperial County’s $405,000, a 7.3 percent increase from April.
The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home was 16 days in May, one day less than May of last year.
