Sales of existing, single-family homes in California totaled 274,820 in February on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, up 7% from January’s total, but down 0.3% from February 2025.

In the Inland Empire, sales were up 9% from last month, but down 3.7% from last year, while in Riverside County sales were up 20% from January but down 4% from February of 2025.

“Following a soft start to the year, the housing market regained momentum in February, with both sales and prices showing solid gains,” CAR President Tamara Suminski said in a statement. “The conflict in the Middle East is creating some uncertainty for the broader economy and financial markets, which could lead to some short-term hesitation in the housing market. We remain hopeful though that the situation will stabilize in the weeks ahead, allowing market fundamentals and buyer and seller confidence to reassert themselves.”

Statewide prices were also up last month, with California’s median home price rising 0.9% from January to February, to $830,370. That represents a 0.2% increase from one year ago.

In the Inland Empire, the average price rose 1.1% in February to $601,350, 1.6% lower than February 2025. Riverside County’s average price was down 1.3% last month to $631,000, which is 2.4% lower than one year ago.

“While mortgage rates remain below year-ago levels, they recently jumped to their highest level in seven months and could temper buyer momentum as we head into the spring homebuying season,” CAR Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Jordan Levine said. “However, many homeowners remain locked in to historically low rates, and inventory remains tight, so any stabilization in rates could help bolster home prices in the spring market despite ongoing affordability and economic challenges.”

The county with the highest median home price in California in February was Mono County at $2.35 million, after increasing 50% from last month. The lowest median price was Lassen County’s $199,000, after a 22% drop from last month.

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Home sales across the Inland Empire have plummeted 22 percent since last year, despite falling prices.

Sales in Riverside and San Bernardino counties fell to 4,541 homes in July, down 18 percent for the month and 22 percent for the year, the Orange County Register reported, citing CoreLogic data.

The drop-off is primarily due to rising interest rates, which cut buying power by 14 percent. Limited availability also hindered sales.

Across the six-county Southern California region, sales fell 19 percent in a year to 13,998 homes last month. At the same time, the median SoCal sales price rose 2.5 percent to $743,000 – 1 percent off the $750,000 record set in April of last year.

In the Inland Empire, however, home prices generally fell along with sales, according to the Register.

Riverside had 2,641 closings in July, down 20 percent in a month and 22 percent in a year. San Bernardino had 1,900 sales — down 16 percent in a month and 23 percent lower in a year.

In Riverside, the $551,250 median price was down 1.6 percent in a month and 2 percent in a year. That’s 5 percent off the $581,500 record set in August of last year.

In San Bernardino, a $480,000 median was up 1.1 percent in a month and 4 percent lower in a year. That’s 4 percent off the $500,000 record set in May of last year.

The 30-year mortgage averaged 6.84 percent in July compared to 5.41 percent a year earlier, driving Riverside payments up an estimated 14 percent, and up 12 percent in San Bernardino.

Between sales of single-family homes, condos and new homes, the latter took the biggest drop, according to the Register

Riverside builders sold 341 new homes, down 31 percent in a month and 35 percent lower in a year. San Bernardino builders sold 155 new homes, down 35 percent in a month and 40 percent lower in a year.

Riverside’s $581,500 new-home median was up 1 percent in a month and 4 percent lower in a year. San Bernardino’s $575,500 median was up 1 percent in a month and 10 percent lower in a year.

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Jeff Collins | Orange County Register

When Christmas lights go up, home sales typically go down as buyers and sellers take a break. But this past Christmas, Santa delivered a giant lump of coal to Southern California’s housing market, as well as to real estate agents, lenders, escrow officers and anyone else who gets paid by the transaction.

Closed sales this past January — which reflect deals signed during the holiday season — fell to 9,938, the lowest number of transactions in records dating back 35 years, real estate data firm CoreLogic reported Tuesday, Feb. 28. An average January has about 17,000 closings. “It’s always going to be slow (during the holidays). But not that slow,” Compass agent Ken Osborn said Sunday at an open house in Long Beach. “That’s why we go back to the basics. Meeting people.

Talking to people. Holding open houses.” January’s sales tally was down 42.8% from January 2022, when homes were selling twice as fast. Sales have dropped from year-ago levels for 14 consecutive months. Prices also have been dropping on a monthly basis, falling for eight straight months, CoreLogic figures show. The median price of a Southern California home — or the price at the midpoint of all sales — fell to $670,000 in January, CoreLogic reported. That’s down $90,000 from the price peak reached last spring, and down $500 from January 2022.

It was the first year-over-year price drop in almost four years. A year ago, prices were up almost 13%, and most sellers were getting more than they were asking. Now, most homes are selling below their asking price and averaging more than eight weeks on the market, Redfin numbers show. The doubling of mortgage rates last year was the key culprit for this housing turnaround.

Even though home prices are lower, the monthly mortgage payment increased 38% over the past year thanks to higher interest rates. “Southern California housing markets continue to be challenged by high mortgage rates and eroded affordability,” said CoreLogic Chief Economist Selma Hepp. “The challenge is further exacerbated by a standoff between buyers and sellers, with buyers expecting better deals and sellers still expecting to receive last year’s prices.” It’s all about mortgage rates in the housing market, Reports On Housing author Steve Thomas wrote in his latest report.

For example, a buyer able to afford a $1.02 million home when rates were 3.25% could only afford a $741,000 home when rates hit 6%. “Demand diminishes due to affordability constraints, and any sellers opt to hunker down as they enjoy their underlying, locked-in, low fixed-rate mortgages,” he said.

Meanwhile, the real estate and finance industries have been hard hit, with layoffs, mergers and even bankruptcies affecting brokerages and lenders. Figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s purchase mortgage index show loan volume fell 41% in the year ending in January. “Anytime you got a person working on a commission basis, you feel the hit,” said Debi Peters, an Irvine escrow officer and board member of the California Escrow Association.

“Yeah, those numbers are scary,” added Dane McClain, a Newport Beach escrow company vice president. “I have seen slow January’s before, but never, never to this actual loss of where we’re at right now.” Business has been slower than in the past few years, but it’s starting to pick up this month, said Martin Scott, a Signal Hill loan officer for US Bank. Even though there are fewer buyers, prices would be even lower if there were more homes for sale. Inventory levels were 31% below average in January, according to Redfin. “That’s what’s sustaining the market,” Scott said.

Redlands-based agent Will Quanstrom said 2023 so far has been his best year ever with six sales already. But his experience isn’t typical, he said. “I know it was a lot different for everyone else,” Quanstrom said. “We had one agent in the office pick up a second job.” Reports On Housing figures show the number of pending sales contracts signed by the middle of February were down 41% from a year ago.

One shopper, Joshua Adrian of Newport Beach, said the market has improved a little bit for buyers as prices came down. But not enough. “The prices are lower, but the interest rates are up,” said Adrian, a tech company owner. “Unless you’re a pure cash buyer, it’s almost a wash.” On a county-by-county basis, sales were down in all six counties.

Three of the counties — Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura — also had year-over-year price drops. Here’s a breakdown by county, showing one-year percentage changes:

• Los Angeles County’s median fell 2.9% to $763,000; sales were down 43.6% to 3,097 transactions.

• Orange County’s median was $950,000, unchanged from the year before; sales were down 41.1% to 1,291 transactions.

• Riverside County’s median rose 0.8% to $539,250; sales were down 43.3% to 2,069 transactions.

• San Bernardino County’s median fell 1.1% to $450,000; sales were down 46.5% to 1,457 transactions.

• San Diego County’s median rose 0.1% to $750,750; sales were down 37.5% to 1,682 transactions.

• Ventura County’s median fell 2.1% to $725,000; sales were down 46.4% to 342 transactions.

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CNS | Contributed

Sales of existing homes in Riverside County dropped by double digits last month, while the median price of a single-family home was virtually unchanged, the California Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

In October, home sales countywide were down 19.2% compared to September and were off 42% compared to a year ago, according to CAR.

The association’s Unsold Inventory Index for October indicated that the median time a property was on the market in the county before it sold was 28 days. Statewide, it was 23 days.

“While October’s sales and price results were weaker than what we’ve experienced in the past couple of years and could slow further in the upcoming off-season, the market bottom could be in sight,” CAR President Jennifer Branchini said. “Homes are still selling relatively quickly at 23 days on the market, one in four homes is selling above list price due to limited inventory, and with median price growth remaining positive in four of the five price segments, home prices are holding up reasonably well.”

The median home price countywide in October was $599,990, compared to $600,000 in September, according to CAR.

On a year-over-year level, the price was 3.4% higher; in October 2021, the median price of an existing single-family property was $580,000, data showed.

Statewide, the median price last month was $801,190, compared to $821,680 in September — down 2.5%. In October 2021, the statewide median price was $798,440, reflecting an anemic year-over-year rise of .3%.

The median represents the point at which half of homes sell above a price, and the other half below it.

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Call it California counterintuitive: Less of a frenzy in the marketplace has translated to more sales of single-family homes statewide.

That’s a key takeaway from the California Association of Realtors report on September sales, which showed a 6 percent hike in transactions from August –– the biggest month-to-month increase in more than a year.

September’s reversal of a downward trend on sales –– ongoing since spring –– came as both prices and demand cooled in the wake of a frenzied summer. Strong demand spurred by low-interest rates and pandemic-driven relocations had pushed prices up relentlessly for most of the year, dragging down availability and affordability to deliver a twin damper on sales.

Last month’s 6 percent statewide gain represented an annualized pace of 438,000 home sales closed in the state, CAR calculated, up from 415,000 in August.

The state’s median home price for September was $809,000, 2 percent lower than for August and 14 percent higher compared with a year earlier.

The slight dip last month was enough to bring some prospective buyers back off the sidelines, Dave Walsh, president of the CAR, said in a release.

“As we move into the off-homebuying season we should see market competition and home prices moderating, giving those who waited out the highly competitive market earlier this year an opportunity to revisit buying,” Walsh said.

California’s downward trend in home sales began in May, when CAR counted an annualized rate of 446,000 closings, a 3 percent month-to-month dip. The trend continued for the rest of the summer, largely because so many successive months of intense demand had exhausted the market’s available homes.

“It’s not that demand is cooling,” appraiser Jonathan Miller said in August. “It’s that sales inventory is collapsing.”

Even with last month’s rise, statewide sales are down nearly 11 percent compared with a year ago, highlighting the intensity of the prior buying frenzy.

The statewide cooling trend isn’t hitting local markets evenly. The median price continued to climb in Los Angeles County, from $830,000 in August to $886,000 last month, according to the report. September’s median marks a 13 percent increase from the same month in 2020, when L.A. County’s median sale price was $766,000.

Earlier this month, a separate CAR report forecast a statewide cooling trend for 2022, predicting that nearly 417,000 existing single-family homes would sell next year and that the state’s median sale price would see only a moderate rise. CAR expects that the state’s median sale price will finish this year with a jump of 20 percent.

Trevor Bach | Contributed

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Additionally, 53% of sellers expect that they’ll at least get their asking price once they put a home on the market, according to a recent survey by Realtor.com. Why do prices continue to rise, and how much longer will this trend last? These three key points tell the story:

1. Pending home sales have surged. According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales rose by 8% from April to May. Economists had previously projected a 1% decrease.

The chief economist at the NAR, Lawrence Yun, had this to say: “May’s strong increase in transactions—following April’s decline, as well as a sudden erosion in home affordability—was indeed a surprise. The housing market is attracting buyers due to the decline in mortgage rates, which fell below 3%, and from an uptick in listings.” The uptick in pending sales could be sustained by the strong stock market and rising home prices.

Yun also predicted that more homes will be listed in the second half of 2021, which would help quell the rapid surge in home prices. Even with an uptick in inventory, the market may continue at its breakneck pace because…

2. More homes were listed in June, but prices still hit all-time highs. We saw a needed influx of inventory over the past month. New listings increased by 10.9% in June, and they’re up by 5.5% for the year. Even though this jump is significant, the overall number of homes for sale is still down 43.1% year over year.

Since we have far fewer homes for sale compared to last year, prices have seen a boost. The median list price is up 12.7% over the past year and now sits at $385,000. Realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu calls it a “shift away from an overheated market to a new normal.”

“More homeowners are deciding to put their homes on the market, encouraged by vaccines, a stronger economy, and low mortgage rates,” says Ratiu. “What this means is buyers will have more choices at more affordable prices.” These numbers are all encouraging for homeowners, but some are still hesitant to enter the market since…

3. Sellers need a moving plan from the start. While a home is going to sell pretty quickly in today’s market, you’re going to need a plan for buying. Stephanie Ruhle, NBC News senior business correspondent, said “It is very possible that your home will sell quickly, and you don’t want to be crashing in a hotel while you compete for a new place.”

Some sellers are negotiating rent-back agreements with buyers that allow them extra time for their home search. Others are finding temporary housing or moving in with relatives during the buying process. Every situation is different, but just know that you do have options to help lessen your success as a seller.

What does all of this mean for you? As long as demand remains high and inventory stays relatively low, homeowners are in a great position to sell. Quick sales with multiple offers continue to be more of the norm than the exception.

While mortgage rates remain low for now, there’s a good chance that we’ll see an uptick in the coming months. Leonard Kiefer, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac, expects these historically low rates to stay at least through the summer.

If you’ve even been entertaining the idea of selling your home this year, I invite you to instantly calculate your home’s value in today’s market based on recent SoCal sales:

Enter your address at the link below to find out what your home is currently worth https://www.teamforss.com/home-valuation/ If you have any questions about potentially selling your home, feel free to give me a call at 951-760-6027. I’m talking to both buyers and sellers around SoCal every day, and I can help you make the right decision for whatever you decide to do.

Team Forrs Realty Group • Contributed

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